Syed Hamid appointed as AEU's first chancellor

 

Syed Hamid Albar has been appointed the first chancellor of Asia e University (AEU) during its 11th convocation ceremony on Saturday.

Its vice-chancellor Nik Mustapha Raja Abdullah said with the former foreign minister’s vast experience in administration and management, there’s no doubt Syed Hamid will provide the university with the direction and leadership to further enhance its academic standing.

“On behalf of the management and staff of AEU, I wish to congratulate Syed Hamid (above) on his appointment.

“Besides, he has also been involved in this university since 2006 from the beginning, he was very instrumental to the development and formation of AEU and he also took his PhD programme here,” he told Bernama at the convocation ceremony today.

Syed Hamid said his appointment was unexpected and that he was deeply moved to get the recognition.

"When the university decided that they wanted to make me the first chancellor it was a great honour and privilege. I am very much humbled and touched.

"This university has always been dear to me and they inspired me to pursue what I have always wanted to do from a young age - becoming an academician," the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation chairperson added.

Nik Mustapha said a total of 2,490 academic students received their scrolls at the convocation ceremony. Some 1,353 of them are international students, with 1,049 from the 2021 batch, and 1,441 from the 2022 batch.

"This morning we were informed that one of our former students from Vietnam was selected as among the top 10 best entrepreneurs in his country, because Vietnam is becoming a leading economy with multi-million dollar companies and I am sure a lot of our students are successful out there," he said when asked about the marketability of AEU students.

The 2021 convocation ceremony had to be postponed to this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Higher Education Minister Noraini Ahmad was the guest of honour. She was also one of the graduates of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme through the APELQ pathway.

Also present was AEU board of governors chairperson Mohamad Zabidi Zainal.

- Bernama