UiTM’s Faculty of Communication and Media will not be merged – KPT
No merger of UiTM’s Communication, Media Studies Faculty: govt
Matter informed by higher education director at meeting today, says mass communications alumni president
The proposed merger would have involved the Communications and Media Studies Faculty with the Computer Science and Mathematics Faculty and Information Management Faculty to become a new entity known as the College of Computing, Informatics and Media.
KUALA LUMPUR: The merger of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) with the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics (FSKM) has been cancelled.
The UiTM Masscomm Alumni Association clarified that the decision was made by the Director General of the Ministry of Higher Education (KPT), Prof Datuk Husaini Omar in a joint meeting on Monday morning.
“Prof Husaini in a meeting with the top management representatives of UiTM and the UiTM Masscomm Alumni Association informed that the Ministry has decided that FKPM will not be merged as announced by UiTM Vice Chancellor Prof Datuk Roziah Janor last October,” according to a statement on Monday.
Also present at the meeting were Prof Roziah, Assistant Vice-Chancellor, College of Computing, Informatics and Media Studies, Prof Haryani Haron, as well as UiTM’s Head of Communication and Media Studies, Dr Wan Hartini Wan Zainoddin.
Meanwhile, for the President of the Masscomm Alumni Association, Basree Rakijan, the decision made by the ministry is welcomed and proves that the objections made so far are taken seriously by the KPT.
In fact, the decision is clearly very accurate in efforts to empower FKPM in the future.
“FKPM, which has been established for 50 years, is a faculty that has made a great contribution to the development of the country and it needs to be strengthened, especially in this challenging era of digital communication.
“Alumni will continue to work with FKPM to implement several programs that have been identified to ensure that the industry-university network is streamlined in an effort to produce more authoritative FKPM graduates,” he said.
Last October, Masscomm UiTM Alumni started a series of protests against the merger of the three faculties which are now called the College of Computing, Informatics and Media Studies.
Through the objection, they asserted, communication studies is more focused on training students to think critically and write well and it does not require merging with the fields of computer science and mathematics.
