Who needs gold medals when you can be a serious global contender for a grand prize in gobbledygook….
Apparently, the Science University of Malaysia is planning to spend RM450 million to build a “science and arts innovation space”. USM had reportedly bought the 12.4ha plot of land in Bukit Jambul for RM59 million from IJM in March. (So much spare cash, huh? Or is it borrowed money? Or ultimately the rakyat’s money?) Looks as if USM is venturing into Big Business.
Today, in theSun, there was a four-page cover wrap-around ad (how much did that cost?) which featured this sains@usm thingy. It was full of gobbledygook and jargon.
Take this example from the V-C’s foreword:
The world of sains@usm will represent an innovative space that promotes highly integrated search and research with dedicated incubators and collaboratories as platforms to nurture transdisciplinarity as the way forward.
Huh? Could someone translate that please…
Under “Sustainability and Space”:
Sustainability, which is epitomised through the use of energy efficient design, not only embeds features that have long been successful in tropical micro-climate such as large overhangs and well-ventilated spaces but also inspires new and creative ideas.
Help! Can you imagine four pages of similar gobbledygook?
If you cut away all that gobbledygook, this is what they are planning:
- a convention and exhibition centre
- apartments
- a boutique hotel “catering to the digital traveller” (as opposed to the discerning space traveller?)
- “leisure and wellness facilities” (for a massage after long, boring meetings?)
- retail spaces
- galleries for Fine Arts and Sciences with a mini-theatre for performing arts
- a day-care centre
- “community-linked facilities and activities”
- an international school
- federal labs and facilities
- USM’s Graduate Business School
- GLC-linked research centres
- MNC-linked research and training facilities (who’s paying for this? USM or the MNCs?)
Sounds a lot like property development work for a few lucky companies. If you own a bit of green space, cover it with concrete and call it sustainable development.
I don’t know about you but to me, if you want to do some research, you don’t really need lots of buildings, do you? But then, what do I know…
“sains@usm is designed to be a premier integrated community for the incubation and nurturing of start-up companies produced from the research community of USM”
I suppose times have changed and you have to start “synergising creativity and nurturing enterprise”! I guess they intend to go in a big way into biotech, nanotechnology (the next “in” thing) and clinical trials.
I just have this mental image of rows of incubators with ventilators furiously pumping life-giving oxygen… err, I mean start-up capital… into these tiny tot companies, as proud CEOs-to-be peer through the viewing gallery window, rubbing their hands in anticipation of new life filled with abundant profits.
This is from yesterday’s Star:
USM builds R&D park
GEORGE TOWN: Universiti Sains Malaysia will spend RM450mil on its science and arts park in Bukit Jambul here, which is expected to be ready in 2014.
Vice-chancellor Prof Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said the park would have apartments, a hotel, an international school, incubator laboratories, galleries, a mini theatre and research centres.
The centre, dubbed SAINS@USM which stands for Science and Arts Innovation Space, would serve as a research centre, tourist attraction and public park, he said.
“It will represent an innovative space that promotes integrated research with dedicated incubators and laboratories.
Royal launch: Dr Dzulkifli (left) explaining the model plan for SAINS@USM to Tuanku Sirajuddin and Tuanku Fauziah at the university on Sunday.
“SAINS@USM will not only represent the ideal space for academia and businesses to thrive, it will also reach out to communities near and far in a truly comprehensive and holistic manner,” he said at the launch of SAINS@USM at Dewan Budaya, USM here yesterday.
It was launched by the university’s chancellor Raja of Perlis Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail.
Also present were his consort Tuanku Fauziah Tengku Abdul Rashid, Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas and his wife Toh Puan Majimor Shariff.
An MoU was also signed between the university, Khazanah Nasional Bhd and six corporations to collaborate on SAINS@USM.
At the function, a representative from the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), Norhalim Yunus, presented a RM24.35mil mock cheque for the funding of eight research projects at SAINS@USM.
And this is from the Business Times Online:
USM research park pulls in RM20m investments
By Marina Emmanuel
marinae@nstp.com.myUNIVERSITI Sains Malaysia (USM) has attracted RM20 million in capital investments from local companies which will operate at its new research park at Bukit Jambul on Penang Island.
USM is set to ink memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with several companies tomorrow, which will include the government’s investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Malaysian Biotechnology Corp Sdn Bhd (BiotechCorp) and Biotropics Malaysian Bhd.
The sains@usm Bukit Jambul park will boast, among others, incubator laboratories, government-linked company research centres and those operated by multinational corporations, USM research and innovation division director Professor Zainul Fadziruddin Zainuddin said.
“The MOU with Biotropics (a company which is developing natural products) is for the setting up of a laboratory for standardisation of natural products for clinical trials, while BiotechCorp will be using the park to disperse nanotechnology to other universities in the country,” he told Business Times.
Zainul added that USM has also secured RM23 million worth of research commercialisation grants from the Malaysian Development Technology Corp, which will be used in part for start-up operations and pilot plants at the new park.
In March this year, USM had purchased a 12.4ha plot at Bukit Jambul for RM59 million from IJM Properties Sdn Bhd.
Zainul, who is set to head the development of the park, said that USM will set up a company to manage the research park, which will also boast a boutique hotel, convention and exhibition centre, performing arts centre and arts colony, along with retail space and apartments.
“We want to create an environment for local and international academia and businesses to interact and synergise,” he said, adding that among the economic potentials of the park would be to foster innovation, technology transfer, commercialisation of technology, while serving as a springboard for new intellectual property creations.
Zainul said while USM will seek public funding for some of the projects at the park, which will be carried out in three phases, other projects will be done via joint ventures.
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Albert, getting your priorities right and balancing it out is what it’s really all about. Technology advances everyday but do we have the ability to sustain our efforts? Why don’t you talk to people who really are in the know, like recruiters working in the factories in Bayan Lepas? Ask them about the quality of the interns from USM and you’ll get a pretty grim assessment.
The development of a nation cannot be measured solely by the number of buildings and state of the art facilities you can put up. The problem is this is used to mask all our other shortcomings. It might sound condescending but have you seen an uneducated person trying to use the latest mobile device? He can afford it without a doubt, but to what end?
As educated people, don’t you think we should try to do something about this? Common sense is not so common, as you will find out later in life.
hey all…cut d crap off..what are these polytical issues..we r discussing about the usm project,so put all the polytical outside!!!
The intention is noble, but it is utterly misplaced. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with fostering synergies between a university and the industries, and erecting shiny new buildings, you have to question if the money could be better spent elsewhere.
A more fruitful approach would be a fundamental shift in educational policies to encourage (or coerce even, knowing Malaysian students) spirit of entrepreneurial and inquiry. What is the sense in plonking for a shiny arts centre if there are no artists to utilise it?
The scale of this ambition ought to be revised to a more sensible proportion. Who, pray tell, would require a boutique hotel, which the cynical side of me would venture to guess would be run by a cashed up crony?
This piece of news prompts questions with regards to the educational ethos of USM, and that of the wider sector. This is another example of ostentation and vanity of politicians taking priority over the quality of graduates that USM turn out and megalomaniac ambitions superceding the quality of lecturers and researchers that are being let loose into our most venerated higher education institutions.
sad to see comment produced by all of these so call Malaysian young generation. Full of complaint, no content. Instead of throwing negative and empty comment here, why not go and do something more useful? One of the bad thing about Malaysian education is to produce bunch of negative thinking student that will only complaint but not try to make a difference.
Capable people these days do not spend thousands of dollars going to universities to earn a degree. This is too conventional. It’s a waste of money. You don’t even have to go aconventional university to study courses in the arts. Education can easily be supervised through distance or virtual learning these days. Conventional education is very commercialised and money has become the target. Why pay thousands of dollars on university education when more effective ways of gaining knowledge can be done through virtual or distance learning. If a person is determined and sincerely wants to seek knowledge just go for virtual learning. IF you are good, you are good no matter how you approach education. Why pay so much to maintain universities – electric bills, sports complexes, the water bills, the “professors’” pay, the maintenance of buildings? Do these expenses contribute to learning? Wise people these days prefer to pay less for education. The computer and the Internet have brought education to our doors. Make full use of these facilities – there is an ocean of knowledge found in the Internet that cannot be found in a single university in this world. The paradigm of seeking an education has changed. Soon many conventional university courses will become “dinosaurs” as it’s sheer waste of money to maintain them. People prefer not to go to a conventional university and spend so much money for “soft” education. Today, people all around the world are going virtual with the Internet and this has become a trend, more effective and cheaper. Another issue the people just find it hard to understand is the quality of professors in some universities. There are local vice chancellors and “dons” given the title “professor” but have not written a single paper. These “dons” are sitting on their titles. Some fear writing papers as there is no quality in what they write. These are the “dons” who supervise Masters’ and PhD students. We churn out graduates with Masters and PhDs that nobody would want outside the country. There was this person from Bangladesh who conmpleted his “PhD” in a Malaysian university. He is now a cab driver in Canada. Many foreigners are finding themselves in this situation. Those earning degrees in the country find it hard to “sell themselves” in other countries. Even when a degree is earned from a mediocre university in England or the US, it is more “sellable” in most countries than the local degrees. For rhis reason many have lost confidence in conventional education that we offer. They are shifting their approach to learning. They prefer to earn degrees from overseas. When they cannot afford to spend so much money to go overseas, they rely on distance learning as an alternative. This works perfectly right for many, as long as they earn a degree from overseas. What matters is, at the end of the day knowledge is acquired and this can only be determined by one’s performance in society.
Using all these bombastic terms is only a show. Academics are good at this. The late Lim of Genting would never listen to academics. He even defied an engineer with his experience In a cynical way he once said, “I learn nothing from them for the practical world. Anyway,I respect them as they can talk.” Thus, the content is nil. The form is there. The substance is missing. Our universities are good at that. With the quality of academics we have, we can achieve no breakthroughs this century. It’s all rhetoric by academics and they are good at spending taxpayers’ money with no tangible returns.
surely there are a few at USM that actually do great work for the community!