There were no shortcuts, and the path taken was never easy for Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) to be at the pinnacle of success today since its establishment 36 years ago in Tanah Merah, Jitra before moving to Sintok Valley.
No one knew of UUM in the past because of its far away location from the city and it was once a communist stronghold, but now UUM's name is not only nationally renowned, but internationally as well.
UUM has since been 'standing in the eyes of the world' with many achievements and successes especially when it comes to ranking in the world and Asia rankings namely the QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings and the UI GreenMetric Ranking.
This year, UUM has shown a leap in QS World University Rankings 2021 by positioning itself at the 531-540 band compared to the 591-600 band in the previous year, and for the first time it made into the Top 100 QS World University Rankings Under 50 at 81-90 bracket compared to the year before at 101 -150 bracket.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dato' Dr. Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani said that nobody had ever thought that UUM, being a university that solely focuses on management, could be on par with other leading universities in the country and the world over at the tender age of 36.
According to him, to put UUM on par with other well-known and long established universities took years, not days, and required long-term and meticulous planning.
"Therefore, the university has created the UUM Strategic Plan to ensure that the university's agenda can be implemented in a timely manner. We have planned, organised, and implemented this strategy to achieve the status of the best university in the world, not just locally.
"I am grateful to the former Vice-Chancellor, the current Director of Higher Education, Prof. Dato' Seri Mohamed Mustafa Ishak, the academic and administrative staff who have worked hard to ensure that the university's ranking agenda can be achieved successfully, so much so that UUM has been lifted to a position that we can be proud of, " said he who also thanked the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
The Vice-Chancellor said UUM will continue to strive to increase high impact output especially in the employer and academic reputation which will help UUM to further ascend in the QS World University Rankings.
He also reiterated that the university would not leave out the other aspects such as internationalization, publications, research, students and infrastructure stipulated in the UUM Strategic Plan.
He said UUM would also ensure that every success and strategy that was planned and implemented would not neglect the well-being of the people and the nation.
Looking back all the years,all the sacrifice
If you want to be the best you've got to pay the price
You learn it from the very start just how hard you must try
'Coz if you don't spread your wings then you can't fly
Look at where you are today
Did you ever think that you would come all this way ?
(And) now you're
"Standing In The Eyes Of The World"