An Introduction to the CenPRIS Ocean Research Cluster ‐ ORES

The initial main theme of CenPRIS’s ocean research cluster is “connecting oceans” - an allusion to CenPRIS’s eventual focus on the Straits of Malacca as a body of water or maritime space that connects its littoral states - Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore - with the larger ocean space, the Indian Ocean. Focusing on the maritime potential of nations represents the other principal component of CenPRIS’s ocean research cluster. The development of the “CenPRIS Ocean Index” will measure the level of utilisation of a nation’s maritime resources and act as a policy planning instrument within Malaysia’s new Ocean Policy. Another research project under the cluster will examine the development of Penang as a knowledge hub in the Straits of Malacca region. A third project that will build upon the two research frameworks is on the governance of ethnic and bio-diversity along the Straits of Malacca, examining in greater detail the importance of sea passageways. For the governance of diversity, the participation of the natural sciences - marine biologists, oceanographers and other scientists - will bring more depth to a complex field that demands an interdisciplinary approach.ocean research; maritime economy; maritime resources; shipping; CenPRIS ocean index; Malaysia; Indonesia; Singapore

Project Management Methodology for University-Industry Collaborative Projects

University-industry collaborative (UIC) in Malaysia has received very little research attention in the literature. Furthermore, worldwide development of UIC project management approaches has been carried out without due consideration of the unique attributes associated neither with this specific environment nor with the high degree of uncertainty intrinsically associated with research projects. This investigation leverages on the available literature, interviews with university-industry research partners and our own works to understand the nature of UIC R&D. This work focuses particular attention on the factors that relate to current project management practices and the methodology applied. It present the findings of qualitative interviews conducted with respondents from universities and industries involved in collaborative R&D projects in Malaysia. Two aspects were investigated; the development process and project management practices in UIC. The study concludes by presenting an outline of the requirements and components required of a project management methodology (PMM) designed specifically for the management of UIC projects. It will provide valuable information and insights to both universities and industries on how to embark on designing a PMM specifically for use in the UIC research environment.Project management methodology, university-industry, collaborative, qualitative.

Communication Factors Influencing Academicians’ Innovative Working Behavior and its Impact on Their Career Advancement

Innovation has been identified as a crucial drive that determines the survival, growth and sustainability of many modern organizations. In today’s competitive environment, innovation can be critical in driving both individual and organizational successes. More importantly, individuals within the organizations are the key player in the implementation of innovativeness at work. Hence, this study investigates the antecedents of innovative working behavior and its impact on career advancement. Specifically, this study will take a close look on how communication efficacy, communication climate, mentoring, and networking influence academicians’ innovative working behavior. These communication factors are believed to provide opportunities for the innovation and implementation of novel ideas that will aid employees in achieving their career goals, and thus become a platform for their career advancement in the organizations. The study adopted a quantitative survey research design. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 132 lecturers from three major Islamic universities in Malaysia. The findings indicate that there are significant relationships found between all four communication factors with innovative working behavior. Specifically, this study found that innovativeness is strongly correlated with communication efficacy, communication climate, networking, and moderately correlated with mentoring. This study also found that innovativeness is strongly correlated with career advancement. Furthermore, regression analysis found that networking is the most influential factor to predict innovative working behavior, followed by efficacy and mentoring

An Analysis of the Spanish Universities' Entrepreneurial Activities through Secondary Data (Websites and Reports)

Over the past few years, there has been a growing number of studies indicating that entrepreneurial activities performed at universities, such as cooperative research and the creation of spin-offs or patents and licenses, have a positive impact on the socioeconomic development of a country and responding to the challenges at the regional and national levels (Fernández-Nogueira et al., 2018). Hence, this study aims to assess whether Spanish universities are committed to the mission of encouraging entrepreneurial activities that contribute to the socioeconomic development of a region in particular. To that end, on the one hand, the regional evolution with respect to the entrepreneurial activities conducted by Spanish universities is evaluated through secondary data (websites and reports), and on the other hand, it determines which regions had more or less active entrepreneurial universities. Particularly, the study analyzed the entrepreneurial activities of 76 universities in 17 regions in Spain (Europe). To conduct the said analysis, the use of a tool is proposed to assess the entrepreneurial nature of universities from a given region, and it comprised a set of observable quantitative indicators that aid in data collection through supporting documentation. Additionally, information was collected and analyzed by triangulating sources and researchers. The key study findings conclude that a positive evolution could be observed in terms of entrepreneurial results in most of the regions. Regarding the strengths of the Spanish higher education system, it is worth highlighting the number of Offices for the Transfer of Research Results in terms of scientific journals, PhD thesis, and license revenue. As for the system’s weaknesses, less than half of the Spanish regions offer entrepreneurial degrees, with a decrease in the amount of research and development revenue. Furthermore, by being aware of the regional differences, the number of patents and spin-offs has also decreased. Therefore, all actors/stakeholders involved in the higher education institutions should strive toward incorporating entrepreneurial activities for the progress of their respective regions

Knowledge Sharing Patterns among Undergraduate Students in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Johor, Malaysia

Due to the technology cultured in today’s world, the learning process has started to change. Student nowadays are persistently required to do some transformation in gaining knowledge. Concerning to this, a considerable Knowledge Management (KM) are important so that students are expected to gain the capability of managing their knowledge and to achieve their superior performance. As the consequence, Knowledge Sharing (KS) process will be subsist, as KS is a part of KM. By implementing KS, students will share their knowledge better with their friends in a diligence ways and platform. Two research objectives were addressed in this research that is to examine how culture affect knowledge sharing among Information Management Undergraduate Students’ in UiTM Johor and to investigate the behaviours of Information Management Undergraduate Students’ in UiTM Johor when sharing their knowledge among colleagues. This study use quantitative method to collect and gather the data in which Probability Sampling that is Unrestricted or Simple Random Sampling are chosen as the Sampling Techniques. The researchers are able to collect 70 percent of the distributed questionnaires. Findings show that knowledge sharing activities does exist in UiTM Johor. This study proposed some changes in attitudes and behaviors, trust and innovation, top management support, strong relationship between academicians and students and lastly, rewards to reinforce knowledge sharing behaviorsas the recommendation to the organization

Engaging postgraduate students in preparing research proposals

Both foreign and local postgraduate candidates of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia come from diverse backgrounds and experiences. These students face several problems especially in writing the research proposals. Hence, to facilitate the process of writing a proposal, they are required to enrol in Research Methodology, a course that is made compulsory for all postgraduate students. This article presents a report on an action research that investigates the research skills of English as a Second Language postgraduates and their research journey while undergoing the Research Methodology course. Data was collected from their weekly journal entries and the interviews conducted on them. This data is also supported with the feedback by the Research Methodology course instructors during the proposal defense sessions. The findings suggest that although the students seemed enthusiastic when writing their proposals, they were not ready when faced with questions about research problems and approaches. It is found that these students did not read extensively to identify the gaps in their research and this hence, resulted in them facing difficulties to write a clear statement of the problem. This also led to poor formulation of their research questions. The findings will be beneficial for instructors and potential supervisors who aim to be better at teaching and supervising potential postgraduate students

Prevalence of depression and anxiety and stress among HIV patients in Kuantan

Depression, anxiety and stress has been found to be present among people who are living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV) 1,2,3. Unfortunately, it is often missed during clinic visits. This could be a challenge to the primary care physician in managing patients in terms of their compliance to their long-term medication