School of Media and Communication (SOMAC) held a Townhall meeting for all students recently, enabling each student to meet and have a dialogue with academic leaders and lecturers. Ample opportunity was given to students to ask questions. The School also took this opportunity to provide the students with the School's newly revised vision and mission.
This journal was written from the findings of a research funded by the Ministry of Higher Education in 2018. A grant of RM250,000 was awarded to carry out this two-year research which consisted of eight researchers from Universiti Utara Malaysia, Islamic International University Malaysia, Nottingham University Malaysia and the School of Media and Communication, Taylor’s University. The shift in contemporary workplace has caused higher education institutions to place importance on developing non-academic attributes along with academic success to help students accomplish academic and occupational goals.
A total of 1892 final year Malaysian undergraduate students from 18 universities across Malaysia participated in the cross-sectional survey study. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that reflective and integrative learning fully mediates the relationship between student-faculty interaction, assessment and feedback, campus environment, and academic as well as soft skills gains.
The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences (SLAS) initiated an outreach to assist industry partners during the pandemic via providing some complimentary professional development training activities. The hotel industry is facing tremendous pressure due to the pandemic, especially with interstate and intercountry travels forbidden. To better support the hotelier community, SLAS organized two webinars titled as “Resilience Building” and “Stress Management” for the Malaysian Association of Hotels, Kuala Lumpur Chapter (MAH KL Chapter) on the 17th March 2021 targeting the management and staff member levels, respectively.
This webinar aimed to share psychological techniques and skills for hoteliers to continue adapting to the new changes, to upskill and reskill employees as well as to enhance their work performance. The “Resilience Building” webinar was conducted by Dr. Lim Hooi Shan, Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist from SLAS. It aimed at exposing the participants to the concept of resilience, how to face crisis with resilience, how to turn crisis into opportunities, how to develop resilience, and leadership during times of crisis via an interactive session with small group discussion and case discussion. The managers and supervisors of the hoteliers in Kuala Lumpur participated actively in the webinar and small group discussions.
As for the “Stress Management” webinar, the trainer Ms. Sam Jeng Mun, Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist from SLAS presented on stress management for the staff of the hotel industry. She shared about symptoms of psychological distress and ways to manage their stress in times of crisis. The staff members from various hotels were enlightened with new ways to look at stress as well as managing stress. Overall, the webinar received a great response and participation of about 100 people from more than 25 hotels. The MAH KL Chapter and the participating hotels were grateful for this partnership and contribution by Taylor’s University, and they look forward to future synergies. The MAH KL Chapter Secretariat, Ms. Eileen Cheah commented that “it was indeed a very insightful sharing of outlooks in managing personal well-being”.
