IBTIKAR USIM | DISEMBER 2018

Q: What exactly researchers should do in university? A: First of all we need to understand what a university is. If you don’t understand you probably will find it difficult to find a role. My perception of university is, it’s a place where people get to seek knowledge and wisdom, to improve the status of humanity. There’s a broad concept as far as university is concern, but the whole idea of trying to contribute, in terms of knowledge to seek improvement is mandatory. So if you come to the university, that is the first thing that you need to think about. And how do I contribute? There must be element of contribution and the contribution must be knowledge based - this is not something everyone can do and therefore it becomes a job for the academia to put this idea forward. And what is important in this particular context is a whole concept of idea. What idea can you bring about, particularly new and fresh ideas and for USIM, ideas that are Islamically based, acceptable and relevant because not many universities in Malaysia have the privilege and we have that. So in a nutshell, if you ask me what would be the role of academicians, basically seek new ideas that could be distributed across whatever sectors you’re are working in and ensuring that it brings the kind of improvement to the quality of life, thinking, interactions – these are the things that I think generally an academician should be thinking about be it through teaching, research of formal and informal consultations, the whole idea of trying to make it better from what it was. Q: Why do we need to focus on research in university? A: We need research because we need to improve our teaching. So in other words, each time you go to the class you have something new to say. It is not a case of one year experience repeated 30 times. Nothing new and no improvement, and sometimes the lecture notes remain the same with no updates, so the whole idea of research is what input can you give to your students that is new so that there’s an improvement in terms of knowledge. Research is not all about publication, numbers, status, even though the lack of all these for me it becomes incumbent upon me to do research, the worst level is literature research. So that I can tell my students this is the state of affair as far as knowledge is concern, we have moved. Everyday there’s something happening somewhere, we can connect that to whatever we are teaching. Q: What a person should have to become a good researcher? A: Inquisitive mind – the asking, the curiosity, it doesn’t need money sometimes. Particularly when you talk about research that impacts society, you don’t need a lab or instrument; you just need a way of thinking which is robust enough to break into so many other solutions that you are looking for. So that kind of inquisitive mind to me is research, or at least a beginning of research. So in that particular context, everybody in USIM is a researcher. In USM for example, I encourage all administra- THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY: Exclusive Interview with Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak Chairman, Board of Directors USIM PURSUING RESEARCHERS FOR TRUTH 30 IBTIKAR