Students and teachers experience innovative learning at Curtin Malaysia

Miri – 1 August 2018 – Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently hosted an integrated learning camp called the ‘Curtin University – Rise of the Eco-warriors Integrated Faculty Learning Camp’ which saw the participation of over 200 students and teachers from seven secondary schools in Miri.

The camp was aimed at raising awareness of the importance of sustainability matters and exhorted students to be environment-conscious. In pre-preparation activities, participating students brainstormed concepts, formulated constructs for devices that could mitigate flood disasters, came up with lifestyle plans for the public and elderly, and in general, ideas for overcoming environmental challenges.

During the camp, the students engaged in activities that took them out of their regular classroom learning and into the realm of transformational learning. They strengthened their ideas for concepts, products and devices using principles of sustainability and innovation, and drafted business plans and marketing strategies. They also learned to communicate their ideas to the public on social media, and pitched their strategies to a panel of judges.

Curtin Malaysia Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Beena Giridharan thanked all the students and teachers for their participation, and also congratulated the staff and students of the university who were involved in organising the camp.

She said over 30 academic staff and 32 international and domestic student volunteers from its Faculty of Engineering and Science, Faculty of Business and Faculty of Humanities came together to conduct the camp and elicited an overwhelming response from the participants and their accompanying teachers.

Professor Giridharan said the problem-solving studio type activities that the students engaged in provided an excellent opportunity for them to understand and experience innovative learning at Curtin Malaysia.

“With sustainable design as the underlying theme for the camp, the students were introduced to experiential learning that stimulate academic inquiry by promoting interdisciplinary learning. They and their teachers are looking forward to more engagement with the university community and requested that future learning camps extend over a couple of days,” she said.

Professor Giridharan said that Curtin Malaysia understands the challenges faced by students and teachers, and through various activities for schools, it helps them be the best they can be and ultimately achieve their educational goals.

She added that learning and teaching excellence is the foundation of the quality education Curtin provides, where lecturers create engaging and learner-focused environments for students. This includes applying the latest in education technologies and pedagogies such as distributed learning, and the use of innovative learning spaces such as case study rooms and flipped classrooms.

Curtin University is currently ranked in the top one percent of universities worldwide in the highly regarded Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2017 and rose significantly to 250th position in the world in the QS World University Ranking (QSWUR) 2018-19. Its continued rise up the university rankings is a testimony of the quality education it provides at all its campuses.

Curtin Malaysia retained its Tier 5 or ‘Excellent’ rating for the fourth consecutive time under Malaysia’s 2017 Rating System for Higher Education Institutions (SETARA), affirming its commitment to quality education. It also retained its self-accreditation status awarded by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), and remains the only institution in East Malaysia rated Tier 5 rating for engineering in the discipline-based D-SETARA rating system.

The good turnout of students and teachers at the integrated learning camp.