| Wani Roslan |
UNIVERSITI Brunei Darussalam (UBD) opened its doors to 1,124 local and international students for the academic year of 2017-2018, during the start of the annual Freshers’ Week yesterday, at the university’s Chancellor Hall.
In a special address, Datin Dr Hajah Anita Binurul Zahrina binti Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Wijaya Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abdul Aziz, the Vice-Chancellor of UBD, welcomed the new intake to the university.
She said, “At UBD, you will experience a distinctive and holistic learning journey. UBD’s successes are driven by the learning experience we offer to our students, through our excellent academic curriculum, as well as extracurricular activities.”
She elaborated on the university’s teaching excellence, as well as its research capabilities in areas that are acknowledged by the QS World University Rankings. Out of 26,000 universities worldwide, UBD is recognised as among the top 1.3 per cent.
“Our curriculum is designed to nurture good communication and reasoning skills, critical thinking, creativity and resourcefulness,” she said. “Integral also to our programmes are the principles of leadership, innovation, environmental awareness and entrepreneurship all enveloped by our national philosophy of Malay Islamic Monarchy (MIB).”
The Vice-Chancellor also highlighted the Bachelor’s Degree programmes and the mandatory year called the Discovery Year, which provides the students with more experiential learning along with the opportunity to study abroad, take up internships, or become involved in a community outreach programme.
She told the new intake, “Your education before was very structured, where you had to follow a certain syllabus to pass exams to go on the next level of education. Now at UBD, your education will be how you shape, control and are responsible for your own learning.
“Your learning will be broad-based, student-centric and will involve taking modules from and across different faculties so you will be expected to be proactive, inquisitive and accountable to yourself.”
Organised by the Student Affairs Section in collaboration with the Student Representative Council of the UBD Students Association (PMUBD) and aided by student volunteers, Freshers’ Week is aimed at familiarising new students with their higher education careers for the next four years.
The new students will be introduced to programme lea-ders of their faculties, as well as the faculty members.
The students will also be briefed on the respective pro-gramme structures and module registration procedures for their first semester, which include the Discovery Year programme, extra-curricular activities and the GenNEXT programme.
A motivational religious talk will be delivered by invited speakers from the Islamic Da’wah Centre, in addition to briefings by the Centre of Networking, Employment and Career Training (CoNECT) and a UBD ‘Fun Run’ to support the ‘healthy lifestyle, healthy minds’ concept that the university strongly embraces.
In the meantime, the new students will be introduced to various clubs and societies which they can sign up for through the PMUBD showcase which is set up at the event.
Freshers’ Week will end on July 29 with a ‘Sukan Ria’ at the UBD Sports Complex, officially marking the start of the new semester.
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