Asiah Abu Samah , Director of ICT at the University of Malaya , talks about the challenges of digitalisation , modernising processes and the role of empathy
UNIVERSITI MALAYA
Asiah Abu Samah , Director of ICT at the University of Malaya , talks about the challenges of digitalisation , modernising processes and the role of empathy
The University of Malaya ( UM ) was the first university ever established in the country , from the merging of two colleges back in 1949 in the prehistory of the internet , working its way up to be ranked 65th in the QS World University Rankings and taking its position as the top research university in all of Malaysia . It is technical , scientific and fundamentally IT driven .
“ Someone once mentioned that a student can live without water ,” says Asiah Abu Samah , Director of ICT at the University of Malaya , “ but they cannot live without Wifi .” That is how much the internet and wifi has become essential to daily life , especially in this COVID-era where the adoption of digital technology has accelerated in all areas .
“ I ‘ ve grown with the university ,” says Abu Samah , “ so have seen its development from early on . I ’ ve been a part of its initial push for automation , data collection and systems upgrades , but now the entire purpose of our IT systems have fundamentally changed owing to our response to the disruptions caused by the pandemic .”
Abu Samah highlighted that the previous role of IT at UM was mainly concerned with the planning and development of IT support and services ( including application systems development ) in-line with the university ’ s needs , but following such globalto-local catalysts , it has evolved into a more consultative and strategic role . IT has become
Asiah Abu Samah University Malaya
348 May 2022