KOTA KINABALU: A total of 4,728 Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) graduates will receive their scrolls at the university's 22nd Convocation Ceremony, starting today.

UMS vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin said of the total, 4,126 people received Bachelor's Degrees, Master's Degrees (452), Doctor of Philosophy (67) and Postgraduate Diploma (83).

He said the recipients of this year's convocation ceremony, who completed their study in 2020, included 206 with a first-class degree; 166 from the B40 group; international students (134) and Persons with Disabilities (10).

"Of the total, 55.9 per cent are from Sabah followed by Sarawak at 7.6 per cent and other states in the Peninsula," he said in an interview with Bernama here recently.

The convocation ceremony will be held for six days until March 31 at the university's Dewan Canselor.


UMS is also scheduled to hold its 23rd convocation in June for students who graduated in 2021 and the 24th convocation in November for those who graduate this year.

He said that thus far, UMS has produced 74,090 graduates and the marketability of its graduates has exceeded 90 per in 2019, and last year, it recorded 96 per cent.

Taufiq said in terms of international students, this convocation will witness 74 graduates from China receive their scrolls, followed by Brunei Darussalam (24), Timor Leste (10), Indonesia (seven), Pakistan and Vietnam four each, Bangladesh (three) and Egypt (two).

He said that thus far, UMS has produced 74,090 graduates and its graduate's marketability has exceeded 90 per in 2019, and last year, it recorded 96 per cent.

Taufiq, who has led UMS since 2019, said the achievement was the result of the university's commitment to training its graduates to master knowledge and skills through entrepreneurship courses and 'train and place', in collaboration with state government agencies and private companies in the Peninsula.

He said that last year, UMS has improved its position in the group of 33 per cent of the best universities in Asia compared with 37.9 per cent in 2020 while in the UI GreenMetric (UIGM) World University Rankings UMS was currently ranked 67th.


"UMS is currently listed among the seven per cent of the world's most sustainable universities besides maintaining its UIG's third position at the national level and 20th in Asia," he said.

He also said that UMS management also intends to join the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings to attract more scholars or experts from world-renowned universities for potential collaborations.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, UMS continued to create more successes when nine of its lecturers have been listed in the world's top two per cent scientists, compared with only five in 2020.

Taufiq said based on the achievements, he was confident that UMS graduates would be able to meet the needs of employers, especially in the current situation, to be employed in order to help the economic recovery process and reduce the unemployment rate in Sabah.


He said employers should also play a role to train these graduates to add to the training they had already learned while at university so that they could increase productivity well.

"I also advise graduates not to be too choosy because their academic qualification should not put a limitation to specific fields as they can also venture into other fields," he said, hoping that all UMS graduates can apply all knowledge and experience when entering the working world.

-- BERNAMA