WOU will produce a new batch of 623 graduates and confer honorary degrees on two internationally well-known women leaders at the seventh convocation ceremony to be held in the main campus from November 24th-26th.
The recipients of WOU’s Honorary Doctor of Letters degree this year are Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood, founding and former president of MERCY Malaysia, and Prof Asha Kanwar, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), an intergovernmental organisation of the Commonwealth of Nations which is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.
DATO’ SERI STEPHEN YEAP (LEFT) ANNOUNCES THE HONORARY GRADUANDS.
Speaking at the press conference today, WOU Sdn Bhd Chairman Dato’ Seri Stephen Yeap stated that Dr Jemilah is being recognised for her “highest level of professional achievement, personal contributions and leadership in relation to humanitarian goals and actions”.
“Her outstanding efforts and sustained advocacy for volunteerism in medical rescue work to help those in need and affected by crises, irrespective of ethnicity and across borders have indeed captured and inspired the lives of all Malaysians and many other people across the globe,” he added.
TAN SRI DR JEMILAH FOUNDED MERCY MALAYSIA.
In the case of Prof Kanwar, he said that she is accorded recognition for her exceptional leadership and lifelong contributions in the field of higher education in general and in open distance learning (ODL) in the international arena specifically.
He remarked, “She has promoted the development of national policies for ODL and Open Educational Resources (OER), and contributed significantly to enhancing the role of ODL not just for education and lifelong learning but as a means for achieving global development goals.”
“Through her leadership in COL, she actively promotes the role of education in empowering individuals so that they can be responsible for their own well-being and for the development of their nations,” he added.
RENOWNED EDUCATIONIST PROF KANWAR.
Vice Chancellor Prof Dato’ Dr Ho Sinn Chye shared that the convocation, which coincides with WOU’s 10th year anniversary, will be notching a few firsts. The University is set to roll out the first batch of 45 graduates from its full-time, on-campus learning (OCL) Bachelor degree programmes in Management and Accounting.
The remaining 578 ODL graduates comprise 154 from the postgraduate and 424 from the undergraduate programmes. He highlighted on the first batches of 7 graduates from the degree programmes in English Studies (5), Multimedia Design (1), and Networks & Data Communication (1).
PRESS CONFERENCE HELD AT LECTURE THEATRE 2.
Prof Ho also announced the top graduates and the awards they won. The winner of the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Memorial Prize for best ODL graduate at the postgraduate-level is Irene Cheng Chiew Ping of Seberang Jaya, Penang. She is graduating with the MBA in Manufacturing and Production Management (MBA-MPM) programme.
The Chancellor’s Gold Medal for top ODL graduate at the undergraduate-level is won by Kalaiyalagan Karuppiah of Puchong, Selangor, who is graduating with the Bachelor of Business (Hons) in Accounting degree.
The inaugural recipient for the newly-introduced Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik Memorial Gold Prize for top OCL graduate is Shirley Leong Yan Yan, 23, of Ayer Itam, Penang. She topped her class in the Bachelor of Business (Hons) in Management programme.
PROF HO (RIGHT) SHARES DETAILS ON THE GRADUATING STUDENTS.
“The University has so far produced 1,787 graduates since our first convocation in 2010. WOU is expected to add another 623 graduates at this year’s convocation ceremony to bring the total to almost 2,500 graduates,” he concluded.
