IIUM Ready To Achieve Research University Status - Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 (Bernama) -- The International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) is ready to be acknowledged as a research university, said Malaysian Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah. He said the status of the university, believed to have been audited recently, would be announced soon. Saifuddin said IIUM had taken appropriate measures to achieve the status, which placed the university on equal terms with five other research universities namely University of Malaya (UM), National University of Malaysia (UKM), University of Science, Malaysia (USM), Putra University, Malaysia (UPM) and University of Technology, Malaysia (UTM). He said IIUM was unique due to its Islamic approach through the Islamic Law, Finance and Halal Research Hub, which would also be considered in the evaluation process to achieve the status. "Malaysia need more universities to be recognised as research university in the future," he told reporters after launching the IIUM Engineering Congress (IEC) 2012, here Tuesday. The third edition of the congress themed "Innovative Technology for Well-being of the Ummah', held from Tuesday until Thursday, would present 580 working papers from local and foreign participants, including from Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia and United Kingdom. --BERNAMA