Dana Kecemerlangan for ARI

Thanks to the university's Research Management Institute (RMI) for giving the trust for ARI to manage its own "Dana Kecemerlangan" for newly recruited lecturers. The university has given ARI RM100,000 for such purpose. Lecturers and ARI members are encouraged to apply for the grant. Please download Dana Kecemerlangan grant form fro RMI and submit the applications directly to ARI.

Applied Research Proposal Presentation

Eleven applied research proposals were presented by the Master in Forensic Accounting & Financial Criminology students early today. Basically the students are given a time frame of twelve weeks to complete and submit the final draft report of their projects. Students are basically encouraged to carry out research projects related to financial criminology that might be affecting their own organizations. At the end of the semester, ARI hopes to publish some of these projects either in the forms of books of readings or journal articles.

Possible Research Collaboration with Deloitte Malaysia

Today, ARI and the Faculty of Accountancy received some visitors from one of the Big Four Accounting firms - Deloitte Malaysia. Deloitte was represented by Mr Nizar Najib (Executive Director),Ms Afzan Mahmood (Senior Executive HR), Ms Fiona Chin (Talent Specialist), Mr Kamarul Baharin (Partner), Mr Y. Y Lam (Director HR) and Mr Abdullah Khairi Ahmad (Associate Director). Representing UiTM were Prof Dr Ibrahim Kamal, Prof Dr Normah, Prof Dr Suzana, Prof Dr Rozainun, AP Dr Zuraidah, AP Mahfudzah and Mr Eizrien. The two-way discussions involved possible collaboration in scouting for new talents, research in forensic accounting, teaching, oversea internship and students placement. The meeting was extremely useful as it could further enhance collaboration and networking between the two entities. Deloitte has a specialised forensic accounting unit under its Financial Advisory Division with which ARI can potentially collaborate with.

Academic Performance Audit (APA)

Our university is undergoing the two week-long academic performance audit (APA) this week: 26 - 29 january 2010. Today was a special session where the auditors interviewed the heads of seven selected centres of excellence in UiTM (ARI, Mitrans, MEDEC, NASEC etc).
The nine focus areas being audited are namely:
1) Vision, Mission, Educational Goals and Learning Outcomes
2) Curriculum Design and Delivery
3) Assessment of Students
4) Student Selection and Support Services
5) Academic Staff
6) Educational Resources
7) Programme Monitoring and Review
8) Leadership, Governance and Administration
9) Continual Quality Improvement

ARI-IPN Publication Plans...

ARI and the Accountants General Office are planning to publish two books of readings on public sector accounting and to embark on two research projects this year (2010). The second meeting to discuss important operational issues was held today in UiTM. Basically it was agreed that the tasks will be shared by both ARI's and IPN's staff in carrying out the collaborative projects. As ARI's focus is on financial criminology, one of the research projects to be undertaken by the team is to investigate the relevant skills required of forensic accountants in the public sector....

Corporate Integrity - Research Lab

ARI participated in a Corporate Integrity Research lab: co-organized by the Malaysian Institute of Integrity and the Securities Commissions.
Twenty selected participants from among the professionals, corporate practitioners, regulators and academia were invited to the one-day lab held at the Securities Commission Learning Centre in Kuala Lumpur. Basically the participants will form the working group for developing the forthcoming Corporate Integrity Framework for the country. The event was graced by SC managing director Dato Dr Nik Ramlah Mahmood.

SATRIA for ARI?

ARI was invited to a joint-convention dinner & presentation code-named as SATRIA 1 MIMOS today at the Institute of Integrity Malaysia Auditorium in Jalan Duta Kuala Lumpur.
SATRIA which stands for "Strategic Advanced Technology Roadmap for Innovative Applications" is an initiative invented by MIMOS. The convention showcased MIMOS's top three initiatives. Perhaps ARI can work closely with MIMOS and adopts some of these initiatives. The event was graced by the MOSTI Minister, YB Baduk Seri Maximus Johnity Ongkili

Journals to Publish

In view of ARI's forthcoming focus on financial criminalogy, please find listed below lists of possible journals that ARI members could possibly publish your articles in. Neverthess the list is non exhaustive. These journals are mostly indexed by Scopus & ISI WOS
Journals of financial criminology
1. European Journal of Criminology
2. British Journal of Criminology
3. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
4. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology
5. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention
6. Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology
7. Journal of Forensic Accounting
8. The Journal of Forensic & Investigative Accounting (JFIA)
9. Journal of Accounting Research
10. Forensic Accounting Journal
11. Journal of Crime and Justice
12. Journal of Criminal Justice
13. Journal of Criminal Justice Educ.
14. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology

FACT Research Initiative 2010

The Faculty of Accountancy and ARI organize a monthly research initiave by inviting experts to talk on research grants and research opportunities. The first meeting cum workshop was organized today where associate prof Mustafar from RMI gave a briefing on research grants. A total of forty staff attended the successful meeting. Congratulations all members for wanting to make a difference...

Competitive FRGS Grant

There were more than three thousand applications and an allocated budget of RM45 million from KPT. The evaluation process was very stringent and some proposals had to be turned down. As a fundamental research, priorities are given to project that has the following criteria:
(1)it is able to produce new ideas which in term will lead to other new research projects, (2)it enhances the quality of life of the society or community at large, (3) it facilitates the development of new policies or improvement of existing techniques and (4) it represents nich areas (that are of national interest)for the university. Two ARI members: Prof Dr Ibrahim Kamal and Prof Dr Normah are among the MOHE-appointed FRGS evaluators.

FRGS Briefing

The FRGS evaluation meeting for 2010 is held at the A Farmosa Resorts in Malacca during the week of 18/1-22/1/10. A total of 3,490 proposals with a value of more than RM292 million were received from bothe public and private universities in Malaysia.
Basically the proposals are categorized into seven groups namely Pure Sciences, Applied Sciences, Medical Sciences, Technology & Engineering, Social Sciences & Humanities, Arts & applied Arts and Natural Sciences & Heritage. A total of seventy one evaluators have been appointed by MOHE to assess the proposals.

Meeting the Accountants General Team

Some ARI members comprising Prof Dr Normah, AP Dr Nafsiah, Dr Azizah, Dr Kalsom, Normahiran and Fatimah were invited to attend a meeting with the Accountants General Dato' Mohd Salleh and his team at the AG Office in Putrajaya.
Basically the meeting was to discuss research plans between the two entities. It was agreed in the meeting that two basic research focus for the next two years will be in areas of "Financial Criminology in the Public Sector" and "Financial Reporting and Standards of the Public Sector". The research on financial criminology is indeed in tandem with the focus ARI is expected to give as a MOHE centre of excellence.

Another Batch of Applied Research Class

We had a 100% success rate last semester. All eighteen students who sat for the class submitted their dissertation on time.
Some of the applied research findings will be converted into book chapters, seminar papers and journal articles. This semester we have a smaller group of fifteen students. Ten students attended the first meeting today. ARI has the same of expectation that everyone of them will submit on time. Good luck

Young Inventors & Innovators

ARI is pleased to announce that five products showcased by our students have won gold in the recent IID 2010 exhibition.
Ms Rosmaini Mohd Hanafi was named the overall student innovator award for her product Internet Reporting. Four other gold medalists comprised the products Anti-Money Laundering Game by Amirul Hafiz and team; Risky Blocks by Izzah Asilah and team; Internal Audit Professional Practice by Mohd Ariff and 1Malaysia Magic by Siti Nur Syuhada and team. Well done guys and gals.
ARI hopes that your achievements will motivate other students to participate next year. This year's participation is the largest so far with more than 1,000 products being showcased in the preliminary rounds at the faculty and state campus levels. In most cases, only the gold and silver medalists were sent to compete in Shah Alam. A total of 477 products were showcased in IDD 2010.
Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad was the co-sponsor of the event. YB Haji Fadillah Haji Yusof, the Deputy Minister, Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation took time off to grace the award ceremony on the last day of the event.
More than 2,000 visitors came to IID 2010 booths. All in all, ARI wishes to congratulate the Research Management Institute (RMI) for organising a very successful event

Impressive IID 2010: Two Diamonds for ARI and the Faculty

Two of ARI's products won the main category under "the overall best staff innovation" and "overall best student innovation.
Associate Professor Dr Zuraidah Mohd Sanusi and her research team members won the former category - the prize a winning trophy and RM5,000 from Bank Islam Berhad.
Ms Siti Rosmaini Mohd Hanafi, a PhD student won the student category and was given a trophy and RM2,000 from Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad. All ARI participants won medals: 2 diamonds; ten golds and the rest - silvers and bronze. Congratulations all.

Anti-Money laundering Professionals

Today ARI received two very special guests: Ms Hue Dang and Mr Aaron Lau from the US-based Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS). ARI and ACAMS had a discussion on possible collaboration between the two entities. ARI sees a lot of potential for our Bachelor and Master students to enhance their qualification by taking this professional examination. This effort is of course in line with ARI's new role as a Centre of Excellence with a niche in Financial Criminology

ARI's Other IID Products

Today, another group of products are being exhibited at the IID 2010 event. . Dr Nafsiah & team from the public sector research centre; Dr Roshayani, Dr Norazam, Dr Rohaya & Dr Radiah from from the financial reporting research centre; Roslina from the Accounting Information System; Zuraidah from Audit SIG; Dr faizah from Sustainability centre;
Prof Rashidah & team from the corporate governance group and some bachelor of accountancy students. It is indeed a pleasure to see to many innovative ideas being showcased. . Some products have received a lot of positive feedback from judges and visitors. It is amazing to see how creative our researchers are in displaying their products. Posters and product displays are also important elements used to judge a product.
Efforts to protect their invention or innovation is also another assessmet criteria worth noting. It is important to protect one's invention by getting any forms of intellectual property protection such as copyright, trademarks or even as simple as a statutory declaration document. . Others are ready to be commercialised. Once the IID 2010 is finished, ARI hopes to promote our products to the industry. Perhaps we can arrange for some lisencing agreement with a third party. Product like AQuR for example is already being used and adopted by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and small and medium practitioners. Well done everyone.

IID 2010 to Celebrate the Innovators

The yearly Invention, Innovation and Design (IID)is back this year with more inventions,innovations and designs from staff and students. ARI is showcasing a total of fifteen products for IID 2010, including four entries from our students.
This year's competition adopted the recent PECIPTA's marking scheme. Basically for each product, exhibitor can choose to categorize their products either under the "commercialisation" or "academic". For the former, the products must show some forms of intellectual property (IP) protection - e.g. copyright, patent filing, trademark etc. If the products are categorised under academic, then there must be publications to support them.
The three-day exhibition (12-14 January 2010) is co-sponsored by Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad. The results will be announced on the 14th January and the newly appointed vice chancellor, Dato' Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid will be gracing the event.

Robert Kaplan Talk on BSC by AKEPT

The Balanced Scorecard guru, Prof Robert Kaplan is here in Malaysia and giving a talk today to a group of university's top managers at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Sepang.
The talk is being organized by AKEPT of the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. Several members from ARI, particularly those from the CIMA-UiTM Asian Management Accounting Research Centre (AMARC)attended the one-day function. It's indeed a once in a lifetime to get "up and close" to Prof Kaplan.

Malam Simfoni Kasih UiTM

This is an excerpt from Bernama.com reporting the message given by our beloved Prime Minister about the role of UiTM during a recent Malam Simfoni Kasih organised by UiTM and UiTM Alumni Society....

PM Wants UiTM To Continue To Be An Effective Socio-Economic Leveller


"SHAH ALAM, Jan 8 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak said on Friday he wants to see Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) continue to grow as an important and effective socio-economic leveller.

He said its effectiveness in this role could not be denied as many of its alumni had chalked great success in their chosen fields.

"Today they are in the private sector, government-linked companies and also in the government and are contributing to the progress of the country," he said at the "Malam Simfoni Kasih" dinner held for UiTM alumni here.

Najib said UiTM from humble beginnings today had become a mega university with its enrolment standing at 140,000 and espressed the hope that the figure would rise to 200,000 students soon."

Preparing for IID 2010

ARI held a short meeting with all participants of the forthcoming IID 2010 to be held on 12-14 January 2010. Participants were basically briefed to get all their exhibition materials ready well in advance.
These materials include: posters, brochures, "Statutory Declaration", copyright document,journal articles, proof of industry linkages etc. It was indeed a useful meeting especially for members who had no prior experience participating in such event. ARI wishes all members the best of luck...

Start of a New Semester

Today is the first day of class for the returning students. As usual, during the first week itself, the students are busy attending to administrative matters - adding/dropping courses, intake appeals etc. Lecturers waste no time - already giving assignments and other in-class projects for the rest of the semester. The next term break will co-incide with the Chinese New Year holidays in February. ARI wishes all students and lecturers a happy new year. May 2010 be great for all of us...

UiTM Welcomes New Vice Chancellor

UiTM welcomes Dato’ Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar who has been appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi MARA as of 1st January 2010. Prof Sahol is a professor of Civil Engineering and he has devoted over 3 decades to service in UiTM and has both a strong academic reputation as well as expertise in taking organizations through periods of growth.

Happy New 2010...

2009 had been a great year for ARI and we hope 2010 will be better for all of us. ARI will start the new year as one of the six HiCoEs in the country. We have been entrusted with great but exciting responsibilities and God willing we hope to deliver all of them. All six CoEs will be presenting their strategic blueprint for the next three years (2010-2012) on 14th January 2010 to MOHE.

Thanks Tan Sri Ibrahim Abu Shah

What a way for all members of UiTM community to end the year 2009!. We didn't expect that he would leave so soon. Our beloved vice chancellor, Tan Sri Dato' Seri Professor Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah ended his term/tenureship as a VC on 31st December 2009. Ever since he took over as a VC in 2001, it is without doubt that he has successfully brought the university to greater heights.
He has transformed and built a strong foundation for the university, and this hopefully will facilitate the new VC to continue on with the "unfinished business". It was indeed a tremendous contribution and we all appreciate and thank you. We will certainly miss you sir. A "send off" event was arranged at 5.00 pm when the VC punched his card for the last time. The VC delivered a speech and addressed staff and students who congregated at the chancellery building since 4.30 pm. At 5.30 pm the VC was taken to Hotel UiTM where the university organized a birthday prayer for his. This was followed by a farewell do for Tan Sri. Thanks Tan Sri and we wish you all the best in your future endevours.