With history stretching over 4 decades, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (‘TAR University College’) has been recognised and acknowledged locally and internationally as an institution of high repute for its strong academic credentials and standards. Since its upgrading of status to University College in 2013, TAR University College is continuously enhancing the quality of its academic offering to develop high calibre graduates. Towards this end, TAR University College had set up 3 Centres of Excellence in the first half of the year 2014, namely, the Leonard Personality Centre of Excellence, the IBM-FASC Entrepreneurial Support Centre and the Virtual Centre for Excellence in Professional Accountancy. 

These Centres of Excellence are set up to enhance the quality of the programmes by imbibing students with all the necessary skills and knowledge that will meet the requirements of the industries and therefore, increase their employability. Each centre carries with it distinct and important set of objectives with the purpose of preparing students to meet the challenges of different industries.

 

The Leonard Personality Centre of Excellence was officially declared open on 11 April 2014 under the Faculty of Social Science, Arts and Humanities. The Centre will mainly focus on promoting and encouraging researches in the field of psychology. It will engage in areas such as personality development, and to involve academic staff and Psychology as well as Counselling programmes’ students in research activities related to Leonard Personality Inventory (‘LPI’) which was developed by Honorary Professor Dr Leonard Yong, a well-known educational and industrial psychologist who achieves international recognition for his research and consultancy work on creativity and emotional intelligence. Besides that, the Leonard Personality Centre of Excellence will provide a platform to share research findings related to LPI Model among TAR University College researchers. 

Meanwhile, the Virtual Centre for Excellence in Professional Accountancy was launched in partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (‘ACCA’) on 21 May 2014 with the aim of further enhancing the value of the accounting programmes. Managed by the Faculty of Accountancy, Finance and Business through digital platform, the Centre will promote educational innovations in professional accountancy, organise scholarly activities in the areas of accountancy and finance, conduct accountancy and finance-related research activities and collaborate with professional bodies, industries and overseas universities on training and development programmes. This is to better equip the students with the latest technical know-how and essential real life skills to better prepare them for an increasingly complex work environment where fast-paced innovation and perpetual change is the constant. 

The IBM-FASC Entrepreneurial Support Centre housed in the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Computing (‘FASC’), on the other hand, is established to nurture real world skills and seed a culture of entrepreneurship among the students. Set up on 6 June 2014, IBM-FASC Entrepreneurial Support Centre will complement the IBM Centre of Excellence established in TAR University College Main Campus in 2011, in developing students to be IT specialists who are not only technically sound but they also possess the business acumen to be the technopreneurs of tomorrow. IBM-FASC Entrepreneurial Support Centre aims to build in students the proficiency in marketing, accounting, strategy, operations and management, to ensure they are well-versed with the business side of IT as they venture out to be technoprneurs. Students will also be able to incubate and test out their ideas in the Centre.                     

With regard to the key outcomes of the Centres of Excellence, Datuk Dr Tan Chik Heok, President of TAR University College, said: “The primary aim of setting up the Centres of Excellence is to fuse industry knowledge and academic learning to develop graduates with the right skills and expertise to face future global challenges. It would certainly bring about increased marketability for TAR University College graduates in the working world and enable them to hit the ground running.”