Ministry of Higher Education Entrepreneurial Awards 2021 (MEA) Kategori A (Institutional Award)

Abstract

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), a public university in Malaysia, has been a vanguard of entrepreneurship education since 2006. UMK is all about entrepreneurship and its nuances thus underpinning its vocation being Malaysia’s first entrepreneurial university. UMK, with its tagline and motto: ‘Entrepreneurship Is Our Thrust’, and ‘Entrepreneurial university’ aims at producing balanced and holistic human capital with know-how entrepreneurial characteristics so as to competitively ready for global demands. Its main agenda is to produce, not just knowledgeable, but also, graduates that are equipped with pragmatically entrepreneurial attributes. To be recognized as an entrepreneurial university, UMK has enhanced the development of infrastructure and services within the UMK campus. Among the developments that have been implemented are: (1) provide space for the student to do business; (2) Incubators and accelerators to provide incentive for the student (e.g. 2u2i incubators, innovation incubators, creative studio, business incubators); (3) Seed fund for business start-up, up-skilling and growth (e.g. Uniseed and Nadicorp-UMK microfinance); and (4) Life lab for student to ‘learn and earn’ (E.g Basil Leaves, Veterinary Clinic, Elysian Spa, Chill'X). The university has also continued to encourage students by providing training on entrepreneurship, lending through the Micro Loan Scheme up to a maximum of RM5000, renting young entrepreneurs' kiosks and various programs to inspire students to engage in entrepreneurship. Apart from students, UMK staff are highly encourage to run their own business. UMK actively encourage their staff to be more entrepreneurial as well as promoting commercialisation by introducing (i) Spin-off and Start-up Policy, (ii) Commercialisation and Intellectual Property Policy, (iii) Staff Entrepreneurship Policy, (iv) Guidelines for softloan (staff) and (v) Entrepreneurship Sabbatical.