KUALA NERUS, Dec 6 — Seven friends carved their own sweet memories with one stroke of the pen when they received their Master’s Degree simultaneously at the 18th Convocation (Series Two) of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu today.
The seven friends, who astonishingly turned out to be co-workers at the same office, are Wan Mohd Wazir Wan Abdul Wahab, 43; Ahmad Nazir Haron, 43; Abdul Rahim Abu Bakar, 39; Tajul Arifin Abd Manan, 45; Mohamad Jazli Shafizan Jaafar, 44; Nordin Abd Rasid, 38 and Mohd Erman Safawie Che Ibrahim, 35.
Wan Mohd Wazir said all of them who worked as information technology officers at the UMT Digital Ecosystem Centre, did not plan to pursue their studies for the Master’s Degree together.
“It was an amazing coincidence when UMT introduced two new courses, namely Master of Information Technology and Master of Computer Science in 2019. We registered separately and only found out after our studies were about to begin.
“Alhamdulillah, despite being busy as employees and students, there was also wisdom because it makes it easier for all of us who work in one office to interact and exchange ideas to strive in our studies,” he said when met by reporters here today.
All of them are first-time students for the two courses and hope that their simultaneous success will motivate other UMT staff to pursue higher studies despite having to pay their own way.
The convocation, which lasts seven days from today, saw a total of 2,878 graduates, namely 52 graduates with Doctor of Philosophy, Master’s Degree (152), Bachelor’s Degree (2,559) and Diploma (115).
Meanwhile, the recipient of the Master of Science in Biotechnology, Farah Najihah Razali, 27, is determined to continue educating the community through her expertise in the field of marine biology on ML Studios’ YouTube platform.
Farah, who has shared 19 videos on the platform, hopes the Youtube partnership in instruction will benefit the public, especially students in the marine field or environmentalists.
“I intend to continue my studies for Doctor of Philosophy degree level in microbiological sciences and create my own YouTube account but I must find suitable individuals for video-editing work.
“We need to take advantage of current technological sophistication to disseminate the available knowledge for the benefit of all,” said Farah, who is currently working as a lecturer at the STEM Foundation Centre (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) at UMT.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency