A Letter from Professor Jarlath Ronayne AM
I am very pleased to announce that the Sunway-Lancaster team has been awarded the Outstanding Support Recognition Award by the Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) and British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (BMCC) as a result of our participation in the 17th JPA-BMCC Management Development Programme.
The JPA-BMCC Management Development Programme was conceived in 1983 by Tun Mahathir Mahomad, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia as a tangible way in which the BMCC contribute to management training for senior government officers.
The joint effort between JPA and BMCC was intended to provide an opportunity for these officers to gain hands on experience in and exposure to the dynamics of modern day business management in British companies. Since 1983 there have been 16 other Management Development Programmes; 40 British Companies have been involved and there are 232 graduates.
The programme extends for 4 months and involves preparatory courses at INTAN, the Government’s training arm; attachments to sponsoring companies totaling 11 weeks; overseas attachments to parent companies for 2 weeks; and two Management Modules delivered by academics from a prestigious business school. Dr Marie-Aimée Tourres, Head of the Manchester Business School MBA programme, was the point of contact between the JPA, LUMS and the BMCC
In 2007 there were 11 participants from various government departments and one from the University of Malaya. Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) won the tender to provide the Business Modules, and Professors John Mackness and David Collins from LUMS travelled to INTAN’s Eastern Regional Campus in Terengganu in May and to Port Dickson in June to present their two one-week modules on the theme “Service Beyond The Ordinary”. The positive feedback on these modules was a major factor in the overall assessment of Lancaster’s and our contribution to the development programme.
Two participants were assigned to Sunway University College for their company placements, and these two, together with a third travelled to London and Lancaster for their overseas placements. During their placement with Sunway the two participants, Ramlah Mohamad from the Ministry of Education and Noor Hashim bin Taib from the University of Malaya, undertook a joint project on “A Comparative Study of the Budget Process in Sunway University College, Lancaster University and the University of Malaya”. They presented their findings at INTAN in August. The project brief was provided by a team from Sunway led by Dr Leong Yin Ching and which included Low Lai Kheng and Ng Kok Cheng from Finance Dept, Tan Kheng Loon and Betty Lai from Human Resources Dept and Chow Soong Min, Head of the Quality Assurance and Strategic Planning Unit. In Lancaster, LUMS, and especially Professor Mackness, provided a full programme of interviews and social interactions for the two Sunway participants and the third participant from another company.
At the closing ceremony of the 17th JPA-BMCC Management Programme we received a certificate and plaque expressing the appreciation of the JPA and BMCC for the participation of Sunway University College and Lancaster University in the programme. Seventeen companies, including Lancaster University/Sunway University College took part in the programme, and the following four awards were given: (a) Best Company Award (b) Outstanding Support Recognition Award (c) Best Reporting Manager Award and (d) Most Supportive Organization Award. We were delighted to be named as recipient of the Outstanding Support Recognition Award.
I am very grateful indeed to the staff of Sunway University College, who gave so willingly of their time, and whose teamwork and co-operation made the award possible. I am sure that Lancaster University, too, will be appreciative of our role in making the delivery of the development programme a success.
Professor Jarlath Ronayne AM
Vice-Chancellor
Sunway University College
7 September 2007
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