The university's key office bearers were reminded to carry out their duties by nurturing values and humanity as focus on the concept of humanising education at this university.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani said the group should pay attention to the concept which will place value and humanity as the education nucleus.

According to him, the importance of education should be viewed as a form of unity from the moment the students step onto the campus grounds, they would be referred to as University students until the day they graduate and become the alumni of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).

In other words, he said, the values and humanity must be evident and clearly seen from the campus grounds starting from the Welcome Centre, the “Circle of Time” clock tower and the main entrance to the administrative and academic complexes, the Students Residential Halls (Inasis), Varsity Mall and UUMKL campus, EDC Hotel Kuala Lumpur and the various venues for UUM programmes and activities.

"In fact, the values of a nation also left a mark on the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in which he stressed that the progress and decline of a country depends on the value system of the lives of its people.

"As such, UUM is responsible for ensuring that the existence and the materialization of positive values among the UUM community and the University’s key office bearers should be exemplary to others by demonstrating the values of love, joy and respect as well as reviving the true value of civic-consciousness and Islamic values.

 The Vice-Chancellor also emphasized on the infrastructure found in UUM, the establishment of a Smart Campus, the utilization of technology in teaching and learning sessions in 2019, campus greenery, student voices, collaboration with industry or people from the outside, autonomy and accountability and he also called on the  key office bearers to demonstrate leadership of the highest kind which will enable the return of autonomy and accountability back to UUM and there would be no compromise on  the practices of corruption.

At the function, the Vice-Chancellor announced the re-branding phase by focusing on the thrust where the Institute of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s Thoughts (IPDM) will play a major role by manoeuvring the U-CoE and S-CoE through the Mentoring CoE programme under the Main Thrust.

He said that at present  there are five U-CoE and 23 S-CoE placed under IPDM and with the new role in place, the programmes under these U-CoE and S-CoE can expect to grow from strength to strength as the programmes will be managed by UUM's key office bearers and professors.

The Presentation of Letters of Appointment to the 2019 UUM Key Office Bearers Ceremony witnessed 68 key office bearers including 14 Principals from the various Student Residential Halls (Inasis) being presented with their respective letters of appointment.   Among the recipients were the Director of Student Affairs, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hendrik Lamsali; Director of IPDM, Prof. Dr. Zakaria Abas; Director of RIMC, Prof. Dr. Nor Aziah Abd Manaf and University Legal Advisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zainal Amin Ayub and Principal of the Petronas Inasis, Mr. Mohd Fairus Abd Majid.