From 25th February – 1st March 2019, UTM Johor Bahru had sent a representative, Professor Dr. Fahrul Zaman bin Huyop to Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland as a part of the Erasmus+ Staff Teaching Mobility Programme (outbound).

 

25th February 2019: On Monday, the representative was warmly welcomed by the International Office staff, Ms. Tiina Piipponen, International Coordinator. They spent some lovely time getting to know each other while having coffee. After that, the representative was taken into a discussion with the Head of the programme, Dr. Jarmo in which both gave a brief introduction of Metropolia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Then, the representative was invited for a short lab visit in Metropolia University campus in an attempt to introduce the Laboratories used in Metropolia University. It was exciting session in which the representative had the opportunity to see the new cutting-edge technology used in the Lab. The representative was shown blood analysis using a big machine that similar machine currently used in the hospital. Mr Jarmo explained that Metropolia purchased this machine for student’s used so that students of Metropolia have first hand experience before they work.

 

The representative with Mr Jarmo in Lab

 

After lunch, the representative was taken on a university tour where he was introduced to several facilities and buildings within the campus. The representative also went for another Lab visit and was introduced with the Lab staff.

 

26th – 28th February 2019: For these three working days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), the representative was given a chance to deliver an informative 6 hour duration lecture for Metropolia undergraduate students. The lecture given was on Plant Biotechnology and the textbook the representative used during his lectures was his own publication textbook: Tissue Culture and Transformation Technique of Eggplant with Synthetic Gene.

 

Textbook used for class

 

The instructor (teacher) far right. In the middle are undergrad
students.

These lectures sessions were very beneficial to the students as they learned hands-on using lab equipment such as HPLC, GC, Microbiology high-tech laboratory equipment.

 

1st March 2019: The representative was invited for a meeting opportunity with Metropolia students going for exchange programme to UTM. He introduced on UTM to the students.

Promoting UTM to the incoming student, showing the UTM values and DNA to the new candidate.

 

After that, the representative also had a meeting with teachers and faculty members of Metropolia that will be going for an exchange programme with UTM.

The representative concluded his visit with:

In Finland two kinds of institution, one is standard university that focusing teaching and research.  While Metropolia focusing only in teaching, therefore all weekly experiment tailored for research plus industrial placement is highly encourage every term holiday.  We also need to understand the strength or scope of UTM. If it is based on teaching & research then both facilities need to be taken seriously to ensure the quality of teaching and research. Every 5 years, the teaching laboratory tools should be revisited as well as the research lab.

 

 

The five-day visit to Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland by Professor Dr. Fahrul Zaman bin Huyop under Erasmus+ Teaching Staff Mobility Programme (outbound) ended on 1st March 2019.

 

by: shahidaa