PUTRAJAYA, August 7, 2017 : USIM Chairperson, Prof Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak who is the 14th President of the International Association of Universities (IAU), a UNESCO affiliated organization based in Paris & the Founding Convener of Sejahtera Leadership Initiatives (SLI) had a dinner meeting with Prof Dr. Junbo Borromeo (former Associate Dean for MBA Program) Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Manila, Former Ambassador Dato’ Dr. Mohd. Yusof Ahmad of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UniRazak) and two AIM Alumnus: Philipe Chow Thin Khe and Dr. Haji Zulkfly Baharom. Others present were Puan Sri Masrah Abidin, Datin Niki Yusof and Hajah Zarina Ishak. The food of thought was on the topic: Sejahtera (Balanced) as the Horizon of Higher Education.
In a world of cut-throat competition, education has almost become a business aimed at ‘making money’; and the more, the better. in order to survive in this highly competitive sector, institutions and individuals play the game of money-spinning. Campus placement opportunity is the criterion of a best school, and character formation is almost a bygone ideal of education. The trend in education seems to be in producing or supplying the demands of the market.
Higher education has become a booming industry, often at the cost of the values of education. Their discussion agreed that such an unbridled multiplying of educational institutions needs to be checked, lest the future of humanity be in jeopardy. The need is to pump the values of life into the veins of education in order to avert the impending danger of the extinction of diversity, democracy, and the dignity of community. Higher education should give adequate importance to holistic sejahtera formation of faculty, students and alumni along with rigorous research and sincere commitment to address the manifold issues of our times.
It was agreed that higher education has to discover and dedicate itself to a triadic relationship, namely with God, earth and human beings. In other words, education is to develop a threefold relationship: oneness and peace with the other, rootedness with nature and relatedness with neighbor. We are what our relations are. In short, higher education has to reclaim its holistic and integral program, emphasizing God, creation, and our fellow beings with all relevant people in the world without which education is neither complete nor compelling.