UNITAR SHOULD BE RE-ENGINEERED AS A NICHE UNIVERSITY - NAJIB

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 (Bernama) -- Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Unitar), the
private institution of higher learning which was set up in 1997, should be
re-engineered as a niche university, Prime Minister Najib Razak said Friday.

He said that apart from playing its role as a boutique university which
focused on small intakes of students, the university should also be
re-engineered to fulfil the country's needs.

"We have no intention of turning Unitar into a 'mass university' but to let
it remain as a 'boutique university', giving emphasis to a small number of
students, reflecting the university's quest for quality," he said when opening
Unitar's Razak Campus at Capital Square, Jalan Munshi Abdullah here.

Najib said Unitar, which offers 40 first degree and post-graduate courses,
including in the field of business administration and information technology,
should also cater for the country's human capital development.

"When Unitar board of directors discuss the university's re-engineering
process, they should look into its niche area," he said.

The prime minister said that Unitar should also forge networking with
various institutions either locally or internationally to further enhance its
quality and status.

In doing so, Najib said the university should choose the best partners.

"This should be the philosophy of Unitar's re-engineering. I hope that we
will do everything possible to achieve higher quality," he said.

Earlier, Najib witnessed the exchange of documents related to new
collaborative agreements between Unitar and three local companies, namely UEM
Group Berhad, Kumpulan Karangkraf Sdn Bhd and Amanah Raya Berhad.

Unitar recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with UEM in which
the
university's Centre for Executive Education would receive an endowment of RM10
million from UEM to be used for the UEM Warriors program.

Following this, one of the university's lecture halls will be renamed the
"UEM Lecture Hall."

Under the MoA with Karangkraf, Unitar will offer a RM1 million scholarship
annually to selected students chosen at Karangkraf's discretion, to pursue
courses at the university.

In return, the publishing company will offer Unitar RM1 million worth of
advertisement in its publications per annum.
The MoA with Amanah Raya Berhad is for a collaboration in programme
development, executive development and research grants in Islamic wealth
management.

Unitar, named after Najib's father and Malaysia's second prime minister
Abdul Razak Hussein, is the first private university in the country and took its
first intake of 162 students in September 1998.

The university was launched by Najib, who was then the Education Minister,
on Dec 21, 1998.
-- BERNAMA