With such dramatic changes taking place, the need to attain greater competitiveness in an increasingly globalised world has become a matter of national importance and demand to adopt a total supply chain management approach has never been greater.
As part of its efforts to cater to industry needs, UCSI University incorporates solid, hands-on grounding in its Logistics Management programmes under the Faculty of Business and Information Science, by encouraging students to participate in competitions and industry trips, among other activities.
This is very much in line with the University's Praxis model – an academic approach that advocates the application of theory to practice – as students are constantly entrenched in industrial practices.
The University's Praxis centres – profitable in-house business entities – assist students in finding suitable logistics corporations for their co-operative placements.
"Students are not only attached to local Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), but also to multinational corporations (MNCs) such as DHL, FedEX and Tiong Nam, to name a few," said Dr. Dazmin Daud, a lecturer from the Faculty.
This way, students are able to learn (logistics) from a global perspective, internalise and apply what they have learned to local supply chain processes, he elucidated.
Through the University's Logistics Student Association (LSA), logistics students – and even some hailing from other fields – are brought together to build on theoretical and practical applications of strategic distribution management, material management and operations research, among others.
Siti Norida Wahab, Head of the Logistics department under the Faculty, commented: "We (the University) actively organise educational trips and industrial visits, approximately 2-3 industrial trips per semester."
Thus, students are able to experience warehouse operations and processes, she said, simply by observing how they function in real life.
She added that these trips provide very good exposure on industrial practices and the real working environment in both local and multinational corporations.
Dr. Dazmin said: "We train students to become future leaders. Through LSA, they learn to organise meetings and trips – similar to events management, which is also an essential component in logistics."
Commenting further, he said: "(LSA) members do not necessarily learn about logistics but instead, they are furnished with skills that are pertinent to their professional development such as leadership qualities and supervisory skills - it is not just knowledge in the field of logistics that is important."
To date, the association has successfully organised student visits to many well-established organisations such as PKT Logistics, North Port, Tongee Sdn Bhd, Kao (M) Sdn Bhd and MASkargo.
Competitions have also long been acknowledged by the University as an excellent avenue to nurture emotional and psychological growth for its young learners.
Take for example the recently held "Kamu Dipecat!" online reality competition organised by the PKT Logistics Group, similar to The Apprentice show, which provides students with an opportunity to try their hands at running a company.
A group of five students from the Faculty joined the competition, competing against other participants from more than five universities.
The ongoing inter-varsity competition necessitates its participants to create proposals to turnaround a new subsidiary company with RM50,000 as investment, which should be utilised in the best possible way.
Participants will communicate with PKT board directors cum judges through Skype's teleconference service and the teams with the best proposals will be able to save their seats in the virtual boardroom.
Winners will be rewarded with cash prizes, and some will also be offered jobs at PKT Logistics with double promotions.
Apart from competitions, the Faculty keeps its programmes relevant to the latest developments in local and global industries by extending invitations to prominent practitioners in the logistics sector to conduct lectures, tea talks and workshops for the students.
According to Dr. Dazmin, Faculty lecturers are also active industry practitioners and are members of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), the international professional body for all sectors of the transport industry.
CILT members are those who have completed the CILT International Certificate or accredited equivalent, and have a minimum of 3 years experience in a relevant junior management position.
Internationally, the institute has approximately 33,000 members with about half the number residing mostly in Commonwealth countries.
In short, in order to teach logistics subjects, he said, lecturers need to be attached to this professional body – although many other universities are lacking in this respect.
Students are also encouraged to conduct original research as part of their education at the University, and one key example is Hoo Lien Yee, a student from the Faculty.
She combined efforts with Dr. Dazmin to write a journal on "Measuring Customer Satisfaction in the Parcel Service Delivery: A Pilot Study in Malaysia".
It was successfully published in November last year in the Business and Economic Research (BER), an internationally refereed journal which has been published online by Macrothink Institute in the United States.
In today's competitive commercial environment, it is without a doubt that the ideal learning environment should be nurtured through a practical, comprehensive curriculum that will cultivate critical and creative thinking in students.
By endorsing the new Praxis approach, the University is the best platform for students to immerse themselves in actual industrial practice even before graduation.
Other than its existing Logistics Management programmes – available at various levels, from diploma to master's degree – the University is also set to launch the new BA (Hons) Supply Chain Operations Management programme in 2013, the first of its kind in Malaysia.
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