An award-winning complex provides an inspiring environment for study

Private sector complements state efforts
Universiti Teknologi Petronas is focused on meeting national needs for a highly qualified workforce, and useful and marketable research

In addition to its 20 public universities, Malaysia also has more than 20 institutions of higher education. One of the most notable is Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia’s national oil company Petronas.

Located in a beautiful landscaped setting, in Bandar Seri Iskandar, in the State of Perak, the Norman Foster-designed university was last year among nine winners of the 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the world’s most prestigious architectural prize.

The complex is undeniably impressive – the Award referred to “high-tech emblematic architecture appropriate for a large scientific university in a rapidly developing nation.” A previous winner was the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

But it’s not just the buildings themselves that have won plaudits for UTP. Last November, chemical engineering lecturer Mohammad Tazli Azizan won the gold medal at the prestigious Innova Eureka Exhibition held in Brussels for his research into producing biodiesel from rubber seeds.

His in-situ transesterification process combines the extraction and production of biodiesel from the seeds, thereby speeding up the process and lowering production cost. Rubber seeds also have an advantage over palm oil when it comes to producing biofuel as the oil in the seeds is suitable for use in cold countries, and there is no conflict between use for food or fuel. The next step will be to set up a pilot plant for commercial production.
Commercialising the discoveries from its R&D facilities is a priority for UTP, as Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin bin Hj. Kasim, the university’s Rector, Managing Director and CEO, emphasises. “Our strength is commercial R&D,” he says. “It is not R&D for academic purposes. Our main aim at the end of the day is to be able to commercialise our research findings.”

Datuk dr Zainal ABidin bin hj. Kasim Rector, Managing Director and CEO of Universiti Teknologi Petronas

A research and technology division charts the direction of R&D. “We work together and identify niche areas,” says the Rector. The university picked up five gold medals, one silver and one bronze in the Invention & New Product Exposition 2007 (INPEX 2007) in Pittsburgh. Nevertheless, Dr Zainal hammers the point home: “Winning is one thing, but it is all about how you commercialise things.”

UTP’s goal is that by 2015 it should be recognised as an international university with expertise in areas such as CO2 management, enhanced oil recovery, green technology, nanotechnology, and catalysis in oil and gas. “We have to work with the industry,” says Dr Zainal.

Schlumberger has given UTP a professional chair for five years in petroleum engineering and is providing access to their technical expertise through the undertaking of a joint research and development project. Shell is providing similar access and has established a chair in petroleum geosciences.

“We want to invite other players in the industry to collaborative R&D projects with us, and we are also looking to do collaborative research projects with our own local universities.”

Starting as the Petronas Institute of Technology in 1995, Universiti Teknologi Petronas was established in 1997 when the national oil company was invited by the Malaysian government to set up a university.

As with the research undertaken at UTP, the emphasis in terms of teaching is very much on the requirements of the real world, and on quality rather than student numbers. UTP has only 5,400 undergraduate students, although it aims to increase the number of postgraduate students to 1,200 by 2010.

Dr Zainal says the academic programmes are designed to turn the students into useful employees. “We try to ensure that any programme that we produce is geared towards the industry all the time. At the end of the day, we have to produce graduates that are marketable.”

Commercialising discoveries made in its laboratories is a priority for UTP

This approach is, of course, directly related to the government’s vision for the future of the Malaysian economy. “Malaysia needs human capital, particularly in the field of science and technology. The private sector must help. We cannot depend on the public institutions alone,” says the Rector.