TUNKU LAKSAMANA OF KEDAH OFFICIATES THE OPENING OF SCIMPA

UUM ONLINE: The Yang Teramat Mulia Dato' Seri DiRaja Tunku Shazuddin Ariff Ibni Al Aminul Karim Sultan Sallehuddin, the Tunku Laksamana of Kedah, graciously officiated the Opening Ceremony of the School of Creative Industry Management and Performing Arts (SCIMPA) recently.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dato' Dr Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani said the establishment of SCIMPA on 15 August 2016 was in line with the evolvement of the industry and the niche of the university. The inception of the School will ensure that the expertise and knowledge in the field of creative industry can be further developed and in one fell swoop encourage the formation of new and more dynamic fields.

According to him, throughout its inception, SCIMPA with its 40 members of staff consisting of 23 academic staff and 17 talent and support staff, had striven to boost the country's creative industry and establish itself in the list of top schools in the world.

He said the determination of the SCIMPA denizens to elevate creative industry to greater heights gained recognition from the Industry when the School won the Telenovela Award for Creative Development category in 2018.

“SCIMPA has also implemented various high-impact programmes including the Asian Youth Indie Film Festival (AYIFF) which has become a platform to showcase local and international young talent in film and animation.

It also organised conferences namely a roundtable conference attended by creative industry practitioners and the more academic, Creative Industry International Conference (CIIC).

"In addition to academia, SCIMPA is also involved in commercial projects related to the creative industry to enhance its reputation with the Industry. Among the commercial projects include the convocation photography project, 'Baju Kedah' with 'Cyntok Bhatik' motives, creative content publishing for local television stations and music performance, "he said at the Opening Ceremony of the School of Creative Industry Management and Performing Arts (SCIMPA) at the Foyer of the SCIMPA Academic Building.

In addition, in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), the Vice-Chancellor said UUM had implemented several key initiatives towards becoming a Digital Campus, including electronic payments, virtual teaching and learning activities, student attendance system that uses QR code and the implementation of online examination.

He said that in the context of SCIMPA, the School also planned to offer new programmes and courses related to art and design management that apply the latest technologies such as cloud computing, virtual reality (VR) and big data.

"In addition, the 'Gig economy' should be emphasized and encouraged by the institutions of higher education to ensure that our nation is able to produce talented and creative, productive and thriving new generation of entrepreneurs who will further improve progress and harmony in the development of the nation's socio-economy.

At the event, the Tunku Laksamana of Kedah also spent almost an hour looking at students' creative works from the different genres in the creative industry including films, interactive media, animation, music, photography and visual arts including the technologies used in the school.

Tunku Shazuddin Ariff also praised the ideas centre staged by the students. He believed that such ideas will indirectly help boost the country's creative industry.

Also present were members of the University Management Committee; Senior General Manager of Kedah Invest, Mr. Zafir Anuar Ghazali; Chief Executive Officer of National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS), Mr. Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nadzri and senior university officials.