ARI Publication Workshop

The Accounting Research Institute (ARI) organizes a three-day publication workshop cum research progress presentation and strategic planning review. The event is attended by ARI fellows, heads of ARI's research centres & SIGs and ARI associate members. Whilst the publication workshop focuses on converting ARI HICoE research findings in Islamic Financial Criminology into indexed journal publication, the event is also used to monitor ARI HICoE research progress and strategic planning implementation. ARI's research fellow, Dr Rashid Amir, an upcoming author of indexed journal publications facilitates the publication workshop. Prof Rashidah, ARI's deputy director, monitors research progress. Meanwhile heads of ARI's research centres & SIGs and "C-Cure Initiative" Project Managers present the status of their strategic planning implementation. ARI has drawn a five-year 2011-2015 Strategic Planning which coincides with the university's Tenth Malaysia Plan (RMK). For the publication workshop, participants bring their draft journal articles. By the end of the workshop, corresponding authors will make online journal submission of their papers...

UiTM-IIU MOU Signing Ceremony

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and the Indonesian Islamic University (IIU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today. The MOU was to signify future collaboration between the two universities in terms of research, conferences, post-graduate program, staff & student exchanges. Specifically, ARI-IIU researchers have been involved with research collaboration in the area of Islamic Accounting & Finance since 2010. The latest collaboration being a joint international conference in Islamic Finance & Shariah in July 2011 organized by both entities. Hence the MOU further strengthens this existing relationship to greater heights.

ARI-INFORMM Collaborative Research

ARI participated in a two-day research workshop with the Institute of Molecular Medicine (INFORMM)to discuss research proposals. The workshop held at the Residence Hotel was attended by forty researchers. The event which was organized by INFORMM's research cluster on "Drug Use Disorder, HIV/AIDS & Tuberculosis: Towards a Personalised Medicine Approach. ARI's research proposal titled "Cost Efficiency Model of Drug Use Disorder of Methadone Treatment in Malaysia" looks as both quantitative and qualitative data to come up with cost effectiveness of harm reduction treatment per client ARI researchers comprised Associate Prof Dr Wee, Prof Normah, Prof Suzana and Ms Sharifah Fadzlon. ARI's research project is part of a bigger project headed by Dr Nasir from INFORMM. . The first day of the workshop was dedicated to discussions on research proposals. This was followed on the second day, a presentation by a project management consultant, who will be appointed by INFORMM to monitor the progress of its research projects. ARI's research proposal was presented by Associate Professor Dr Wee Shu Hui, a research fellow and a member of ARI's Asian Management Accounting Research Centre...

Consortium-Based Centre of Excellence

Premised on the existence of many smaller centres of excellence (COE) in both public and private universities in Malaysia, there has been requests from the COEs that the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) set up a consortium-based COE at the national level. Hence a group of selected people - directors of HICoE, panels of assessors of COEs, industry players as well as MOHE officers were invited to a workshop to discuss concepts, objectives, criteria, measurements and weightage. A recent research finding of a MOHE study on Malaysian Centres of Excellence was presented and deliberated. Whilst the concepts of collaboration and consortium where teams from different entities working cohesively towards a common purpose is noble, the implementation and monitoring processes could be challenging. The first day at the workshop was spent to discuss and to clarify concepts, objectives and mechanisms....

Malaysian Centres of Excellence: Research Findings

A group of researchers, Professor Dr Zakaria Abas (UUM), Dr Angelina (UNMC), Ms Chin (UTAR) and Mr Chong (UCSI) presented their research titled "Centres of Excellence in Malaysia: Comparative Strategic Management Practices, Models and Governance" in a workshop organised by the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.
The research abstract stipulates that " There is a rising need for Malaysian CoEs to have multiple and diversified sources of funding, apart from reliance on funding from parent institution. Diminishing in government grants increases the need to collaborate with industry for funding and commercialisation of R&D products. Arguably, it is difficult for an organisation or institution to encompass all resources.
Thus, CoEs need to collaborate strategically with multiple universities and companies on consortium platforms to enable effective and efficient use of resources, transfer of technology and sharing of knowledge. Furthermore, there is a need to have a structured governance system, periodic monitoring process, good leadership skills and succession planning. Directors of CoEs are also challenged to manage various stakeholders' expectations and relationships". A Consortium-Based CoE.....

Research Discussions with University of Wollongong

Day Eight

On the last day of ARI visits to Australia, Prof Dr Normah and Dr Roszana went to the University of Wollongong, some 200 km away from Sydney. The University of Wollongong is a garden campus, with green trees everywhere and the campus has been very beautifully landscaped. The University of Wollongong was among the first university in the world that started its forensic accounting programs. Currently the university offers both undergraduate and post-graduate programmes to both fulltime and part-time students. At Wollongong, ARI researchers met up with Associate Professor Mary Kaidonis, Head, School of Accounting and Finance and two other officers - Ms Tina and Ms Angie. At the meeting, it was decided that Potential ARI-Wollongong collaborations include research, teaching of forensic accounting programs, joint-conferences and the publication of special-issue journal in the area of Forensic Accounting and Financial Criminology. Currently, the university publishes an international indexed journal - Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal (AABFJ). Two joint research proposals will be prepared and discussed by researchers of both universities with possible preliminary findings to be presented at the University of Wollongong's February 2012 conference. A very fruitful visit indeed.....

Visit to Macquarie University

After the UNSW research discussions in the morning, the two ARI researchers spent the whole afternoon to visit the Macquarie University some 20 km away from Sydney . The University is home to some of the world’s most pre-eminent researchers. These teams and individuals work across disciplinary boundaries to create real change. Basically, the university operates at the forefront of research practice in several distinct areas. These research strengths are the foundation of Macquarie University’s international reputation. The Key CORE areas of research strength at Macquarie are: (i) Ancient Cultures, (ii) Animal Behavior, (iii) Astronomy and Astrophysics, and (iv) Biomolecular Frontiers. In essence, Macquarie University has been in partnership with UiTM since 2005 when Prof Chris Patel visited ARI as part of his sabbatical research. Then, in 2007, Professor Hector Perera, Associate Prof Dr Sujatha also spent a few weeks at ARI. In 2009 & 2011, another researcher, Dr Philip Sinnadurai participated in several collaborative research projects with ARI researchers and had spent a few weeks at UiTM. In this visit, Prof Dr Normah and Dr Roszana specifically addressed on joint-research and joint-publication. Prof Patel has agreed on a joint project to convert ARI research monographs into international publications - an activity that he has personally undertaken at Macquarie and has produced very successful results.

ARI Visit to University of New South Wales

Day Seven

After several successful research trips in Canberra, the two ARI researchers spent the next three days in Sydney. The first research visit was to the University of New South Wales (UNSW). UNSW is certainly in a class of its own. As far as accounting and finance program is concerned, the university prides itself as being the biggest and the best in Australia. The Accounting and Finance School is located within the structure of the Australian School of Business. As aresearch university, UNSW consistently scores highly in a range of national and international rankings. UNSW ranked 46th worldwide on the 2010 QS World University Rankings, and one of five Australian institutions to make the top 50. UNSW is a founding member of The Group of Eight (Go8) - a coalition of leading Australian universities, intensive in research and comprehensive in general and professional. UNSW scored highly in the 2010 Good Universities Guide, being awarded the maximum five-star rating for seven key performance indicators: including research grants, research intensivity, student-staff ratio, staff qualifications, cultural diversity, graduate starting salary and positive graduate outcomes At ANU, Prof Dr Normah and Dr Roszana met up with two prominent researchers - Prof Gary Monroe and Associate Professor Dr Peter Roebuck. . Whilst Prof Monroe specializes in Accounting and Auditing, Dr Roebuck is in the area of Accounting Information System. The duo recommended us several other names that could participate in ARI's international research in Financial Criminology. In essence, several researchers at UNSW are working on developing system to identify fraud risk indicators.

ARI Lecture Series on Takaful

Back in Shah Alam, the Islamic Accounting & Finance research team organized its monthly lecture series yesterday. The event was attended by many researchers from within the university. The lecture on Shariah Principles in Takaful was presented by Dato’ Mohd Fadzli Bin Yusof, a renowned Takaful scholar. Dato' Mohd Fadzli is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arab-Malaysian Takaful Company, a Jeddah-based Takaful operator, and Amana Takaful of Sri Lanka. He currently sits on the advisory committee for Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), a subsidiary of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). He retired as the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia’s pioneer takaful operator, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Berhad (Takaful Malaysia) in 2005. Under his stewardship, assets of Takaful Malaysia grew to RM 2.4 Billion. He led Takaful Malaysia in 2001 to be the first takaful company listed on Main Board of Bursa Malaysia. Takaful Malaysia was accorded ‘Best Provider for Takaful Services’ in 2004 by Euromoney, a London-based financial publication. Prior to joining Takaful Malaysia, he was a senior management of Malaysian National Insurance Bhd, then the largest insurance group in Malaysia. He was a member of the Special Task Force Committee set up by the Malaysian Government to formulate the regulatory and market framework for takaful industry in Malaysia

ANU Conferment Ceremony

Day Four

Our Australian visits coincided with ANU’s Conferring of Awards Ceremony. ARI’s research associate Dr Roszana Tapsir received her PhD degree from ANU with her research titled ”Auditors’ Perceptions of Financial Controller Behaviors: The Existence of Positivity and Negativity Biases”, Congratulations (Dr Rozana is an active member of ARI's Asia-Pacific Forensic Accounting Research Centre - AFARe). The conferment ceremony was followed by a cocktail networking meeting with researchers and business leaders who were mostly alumni members of ANU. A researcher, Dr Peter Radoll was specifically recognized at the meeting for his research in exploring why Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders are 69 per cent less likely to have household access to computer and the internet.
Both Dr Rozana and Professor Dr Normah got the opportunity to meet up with ANU Chancellor, Professor the Honourable Gareth Evans AO QC. The networking cocktail event was also fruitful as researchers get together to discuss possible research works that would benefit the university and Australia as a country. A total of 649 graduates obtained their degrees during the conferment ceremony. What is also interesting about the event is the full listing of graduate names being published in Canberra's main newspaper - The Canberra Times. Congratulations Dr Roszana, we are very proud of you