Appendix A

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH (UMS)

Research Thrust of Schools

Research is one of the primary tasks of academics at the university in the pursuance of excellence.  It is undertaken by the schools according to their respective thrust areas, by individuals or groups for advancement in their respective field of knowledge.

School of Science and Technology

The School of Science and Technology promotes the development of applied sciences through teaching, learning, and research with the intention of producing intellectuals who are creative and innovative and also of providing a skilled labor force capable of fulfilling the demands of rapid national development.  The school is concerned with environmental conservation in promoting sustainable development.  The research emphasis of the school, among others, are manufacturing/biotechnology and educational development.

School of Business and Economics

The research thrust of the School of Business and Economics focuses on issues pertaining to strengthening the organizations in order to be competitive through strategic management, quality, corporate entrepreneurship, human resource development, the research emphasis covers environment, strategic thinking in business, and techniques in strategic planning.  On quality, the research thrust focuses on TQM and its related factors, ISO 9000 and issues related to quality in the services sector.  In corporate entrepreneurship, emphasis will be placed on entrepreneurship and extrapreneurship.  The research thrust in human resource development cover issues related to human resource management and techniques in human resource development, whereas in financial economics, the research emphasis will be on the issues pertaining to finance.

School of Social Sciences

In moving towards industrialization and in line with the effort to achieve Vision 2020, Malaysia should pursue development without excluding its own values and culture.  Although there are values and culture that must be conserved and upgraded, society of today and decades to come should have a positive attitude, be futuristic, and be able to take the initiative.  Therefore, besides identifying, recording, and explaining the values and cultures of the ethnic groups in Malaysia, intervention research and its policy implication will be a strategy in this school.  The school's research will explain the value, culture value, and cultural system of the society.

Centres of Excellence

Apart from the specialization in the schools, UMS also supports research units that will be the inputs to the development of centres of excellence of the university.  The units will be the foundation to the development of teaching quality of the university academics while ensuring quality of knowledge and the learning process of its students.  The course contents offered to the students comprise of input obtained from research done by the university researchers, particularly from those in the research units.

Tropical Biology and Conservation Unite

This unit has three divisions, namely Research and Development Division, Biodiversify  (Borneensis) Division, and Information Network Division.  The Research and Development Division is for all researches related to tropical biology and conservation especially, in the areas of canopy, terrestrial, and freshwater organisms.  Both basic and applied researches are carried out by the division.  Thematic research is carried out by the unit staff or in collaboration with foreign scientists from abroad.  This division also coordinates research by post graduates from the school of science and technology and other schools as well.  The biodiversity (Borneensis) division has a building complete with museum accessories to function as a depository for specimens collected during researches, which are considered national heritage.  For the first time, Malaysia will have a building to seriously house the national heritage for the benefit of mankind.  The Information Network Division manages all information gathered and handles requests for retrieval of outside information for the two divisions mentioned earlier.  It is also responsible for publishing results obtained by the other two divisions.  This division also organizes specialized short training courses with specific objectives to solve certain national or global issues, on behalf of, or to assist the government or private sector.

Borneo Marine Research Unit

This unit is established for the advancement of research in marine science, particularly in Sabah and for the whole of Borneo.  It aims to provide facilities for research, particularly in the areas of marine science, fisheries and moriculture, pollution and their impacts, marine resource management, biotechnology, tourism, and recreation.  Moreover, this research unit acts as a data collection centre for marine resources and oceanography for the waters of Sabah and Borneo; to serve as the centre of information for management of the marine environment and resources; and serve as a centre of reference for marine flora and fauna of Sabah and Borneo.  This unit invites researchers from other higher education learning and research institutions, and local and foreign government and private sectors to conduct research in Sabah and Borneo.

Ethnography and Development Research Unit

This unit aims to build a database on the knowledge and ethnography information of Malaysia; to conduct ethnogaphic research in order to enrich our knowledge about mankind; to offer postgraduate studies; and to offer short-term courses in comparative ethnography and also specialized preparatory courses in ethnography to private and public sectors.

Psychology and Social Health Research Unit

This unit aims to establish a centre to stimulate research on current issues and the psychology of the society; to establish a forum for researchers, intellectuals, politicians, policy makers and technocrats to discuss issues relating to the psychology of the society; and to establish a think-tank and act as a database to contribute psychological inputs to the nation's policy makers.

Table 1:  Selected economic indicators in Malaysia.