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The University's formative role in the lives of its Malaysian graduates was to
the fore at the official launch of the University of Canterbury Alumni, Malaysia
(UCAM) in October.
UCAM Patron, Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn, Minister for Human Resources and a
Canterbury electrical engineering graduate, said the University held a special
place in the lives of its graduates from this country.
It is imprinted into our psyches. It is where we lived and studied, and where
some of us fell in love. We got a degree, but it also provided us with the
values we are living with today.
We have every reason to be grateful to the University of Canterbury, whose reach
was long before globalisation became the buzz word of today. Our successes and
achievements have been the direct result of our degrees", he said.
Dr Fong said Malaysia as a nation had benefited and individual graduates had
earned millions as a direct result of their degrees. He encouraged alumni to
support the University financially, through UCAM and as individuals.
UCAM President Dato Mohd Yunus Bin Mohd Noor, a Warwick House contemporary of Dr
Fong and fellow UCAM committee member Dr Junid Saham, fondly recalled his days
at Canterbury, where he met his New Zealand wife.
Malaysian alumni would not be the people they were if they had not studied at
Canterbury, he said, before enumerating many graduates who had achieved high
office on their return to Malaysia.
While the degree was important he said there were three other things Malaysian
alumni learned from New Zealanders. They taught us to treat everyone as an
equal, regardless of class, colour or creed; they taught us to be friendly,
humble and supportive of others; and they taught us to be practical,
self-reliant and independent, he said. Dato Yunus paid tribute to former
Vice-Chancellor Professor Daryl Le Grew for instituting regular visits to
Malaysia and to the visiting party of Professor John and Mrs Penny Raine,
Development Manager Shelagh Murray and Communications and Development Director
Jeff Field, who has been part of all five formal visits.
He also thanked fellow UCAM committee members, and particularly Secretary and
Vice-President Richard Tankersley.
Nearly 100 alumni attended the formal Kuala Lumpur launch of UCAM, which has
been established as a registered society with representatives from every state.
The visiting party also attended the annual meeting of the Malaysia New Zealand
Business Council in KL and hosted a dinner at which the launch of the University
of Canterbury Foundation was announced.
A further 80 alumni attended a presentation in Kuching, from Professor Raine, on
recent Canterbury research developments and the commercialisation of its
intellectual property innovations.
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