31 August 2019 – His Royal Highness Prince (Dr.) Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah ibni His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, Pro-Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), consented to officiate UTB’s Sixth Convocation Festival 2019.
Upon arrival at the Multipurpose Hall of UTB, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was greeted by, Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hamzah bin Haji Sulaiman, Minister of Education and Chairman of UTB Council; Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr. Awang Haji Mat Suny bin Haji Md Hussein, Minister of Energy, Manpower and Industry and the Deputy Chair of UTB Council; and Yang Mulia Awang Haji Ady Syarmin bin Haji Md Taib, the Acting Vice-Chancellor of UTB.
Also present at the ceremony were Yang Mulia Datin Seri Paduka Dr. Dayang Hajah Romaizah binti Haji Mohd Salleh, Deputy Minister of Education; Yang Mulia Dato Paduka Seri Setia Awang Haji Marzuke bin Haji Mohsin, Deputy Minister of Development; members of UTB Council, senior government officials and staff and students of UTB.
The ceremony commenced with the recitation of Surah Al-Fatihah and doa led by Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Paduka Seri Utama Dato Paduka Seri Setia Haji Awang Salim bin Haji Besar.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince then consented to deliver a Sabda launching UTB’s Sixth Convocation Festival 2019, followed by the call of Takbir and a multimedia show.
The ceremony then proceeded with His Royal Highness consenting to tour the ‘VI5ION’ exhibition.
This year’s convocation festival carries the theme “VI5ION” which symbolises the University’s clear and focused aspiration that inspires the students of the University to take an active role in realising UTB’s vision to be ‘A Global University Impacting Society’ by 2023. The number ‘5’ in the theme VI5ION signifies the University’s five-year Strategic Plan 2019-2023. This year is the University’s first year of the five-year journey. The vision revolves around the four strategic pillars or focused areas: Quality Education, Independent Learners, Translational Research and Quadruple Helix Engagement.
This year’s convocation festival exhibition showcased a number of selected programmes, projects and activities undertaken by the graduating student cohort during their study that has the potential to impact society positively. The exhibition was divided into three sections.
The first section introduced the University’s five-year Strategic Plan which begun this year. The showcase also displayed the students’ role in helping the University achieve its current Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings and QS Star Rating in terms of Internationalisation and Employee reputation. Under Internationalisation, the graduands shared some of their experiences undergoing industrial internship with Piper Aircraft Inc. in the United States under UTB ExperiencePLUS and attending a community-based programme in Japan. These experiences are intended to enhance students practical industrial skills and develop students’ soft-skills and global awareness. These are important attributes in helping to enhance students’ marketability.
Section two of the exhibition displayed ten selected student projects from various Schools and Faculty that have direct relevance and potential impact to the country’s socio-economy society. These projects also contain elements of interaction between academia, the government, industry as well as the community. The projects are namely Finite Element Modelling of the Behavior of Houses Subjected to Settlement; Bad Driver Behaviour: Impatient (Virtual Reality (VR) Interactive Film; Production of Styrene Butadiene Rubber with Production Rate of 120,000 tonnes per year; Road Accident Data Development and Enhancement (RADED); Indoor Positioning: Tracking and Locate; Assessing the Effectiveness of Technopreneurship Course in Creating Entrepreneurial Motivation; Spending Patterns of Youths in Brunei; Public-Private Partnership in Supporting the Economy of Brunei Darussalam; Autonomous Foraging Robot; and Mechanical Strength of Foam-Filled Honeycomb Structure.
The final part of the exhibition explains one of the University’s initiative in equipping students with an appreciation of issues affecting communities such as the Environment and their ability to solve problems and lead community-based projects through the introduction of the compulsory Environment, Leadership, Technopreneurship and Social Innovation (ELTS) undergraduate module.
His Royal Highness also consented to view the performance of guling tangan, tausyeh, traditional dance, karate and archery by UTB students. The University currently has more than 40 co-curricular clubs and encourages its students to take an active part in running the clubs and participate in its activities, as an avenue for them to pursue their interests and at the same time developing important skills such as teamwork, leadership and communication.
At the end of the event, His Royal Highness consented to receive a Pesambah from UTB students in the form of a digital art of the Prime Minister’s Office Complex and also consented to have a photograph session with members of the UTB Student Representative Council 2019-2020.
The Convocation Festival is held annually to celebrate students who have successfully completed their studies and will be graduating in the upcoming UTB Convocation that will be held on Thursday, 12 September 2019 at the Plenary Hall, International Convention Centre (ICC), Berakas. A series of events have been lined up in conjunction with the Festival which include Majlis Khatam Al-Quran, UTB Sports Fiesta, UTB Library Book Bazaar (ULBB), EKK Open Week 2019 Tarbiyah, Inter IPT Debate Competition, Dream Drama “A Cinder in The Dark”, Cultural Week, Health and Safety Awareness Campaign, Youth Islamic Week Celebration, #KampongAyerKu Project and UTB Virtual Run and Cycle.
