Taylor's School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management has appointed the very first Adjunct Professor - Mr. Gan Boon Kiat. During the appointment ceremony held in Tangerine Restaurant, Taylor's University Lakeside Campus, Prof. Dr. Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan, Executive Dean and Dr. Logendra Stanley Ponniah, Head of School presented the Adjunct Professor Certificate to Mr. Gan Boon Kiat in the attendance of more than 30 guests comprising the leadership teams and representatives from Taylor’s University (TU), Taylor’s Schools (TS) Headquarters (HQ), Taylor’s International School Kuala Lumpur, Taylor’s International School Puchong, Garden International School (GIS), Nexus International School Malaysia (NISM), Nexus International School Singapore (NISS) and Australian International School Malaysia (AISM).
Mr. Gan Boon Kiat, fondly known as Mr. BK, is the President of TS and has been instrumental in not only the thriving relationship and collaboration between TU and TS, but also the setting-up of the School of Education. Especially for the earlier batches of Bachelor of Education (Hons) (BEd) students, he personally visited TU and interviewed the applicants before enrolment into the programme. He patiently spent time to engage with the students as he chatted with them about their aspirations to become a teacher. Mr. BK also personally conducted workshops to School of Education (SoEd) students to share his experiences and further nurture the budding talents to help them better their craft and plan for their career in teaching.
In addition, with his ever-supportive nature towards SoEd’s practicum programmes including the recent Q-LiT initiative and Early Childhood Education (ECE) practicum programmes. The University is also proud that there are SoEd graduates who are now established teachers in TS and some of them in fact had mentored their juniors who later completed their practicum at TS. Mr. BK has continued to lead TS in providing a platform for SoEd’s students and graduates to manifest and achieve their aspirations in professional teaching.
As the President of TS, Mr. BK’s leadership has, for example, grown the schools from 2 to 6, where there are now 4 brands in Malaysia and Singapore (Garden, Australian, Taylor’s, Nexus), led all the schools to be accredited internationally (GIS, AISM, NISM and NISS are all accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS)), led both the TIS schools to be accredited by Quantum USA as Quantum Learning Distinguished Schools making them the first schools in the world in receiving the accreditation, and led AISM to be acknowledged by Dr. John Hattie as the first Visible Learning School in the world.
Prof. Dr. Neethiahnanthan and Dr. Logendra expressed their sincere appreciation to Mr. BK’s continuous commitment to improving the quality of education and teachers as well as to the overall growth of TS and collaboration between TU and TS. They also expressed gratitude to both TU and TS teams who have been graciously supportive in this journey and look forward to more successes together. With this recent appointment as Adjunct Professor, Mr. BK will now actively provide his expertise to the School of Education.