University of Southampton UK and Universiti Teknologi Petronas ink deal

The MoU was signed between Professor Mark Spearing, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), University of Southampton and Datuk Ir (Dr) Abdul Rahim Hashim, Vice-Chancellor, UTP (see right photo). The event was also graced by Dr. Mohamed Ali Bin Abdul Rahman, Director, Governance Division, Private Higher Education Management Sector, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education.

Under this MoU, University of Southampton and its Malaysia campus will create strong ties with UTP to develop academic exchanges and cooperation in teaching and research through:

• collaborations which include information sharing sessions
• joint academic and scientific activities such as seminars and conferences
• academic and student exchange opportunities
• joint application of research and development grants
• address local issues with the potential for both societal and commercial impact

According to Prof. Spearing, the partnership with UTP will play an important role in strengthening their links in this important and vibrant country and region. It complements previously established agreements they have with Universiti Malaya and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

"Our world-class facilities, combined with our world-wide capabilities in Engineering and Electrochemistry will provide the foundations for our research, education and enterprise activities and we look forward to using these capabilities to support UTP in its research endeavours," said Prof. Spearing

University of Southampton is one of the UK's top engineering universities. It ranked within the top 100 universities in the world and are routinely featured in the top one or two universities in the UK for engineering research and education in the UK. In September 2012, it commenced in EduCity with its first programme in Mechanical Engineering which will be followed by their Electrical and Electronic Engineering programme, which is currently awaiting approval from the MQA.