Puncak Alam, 23 November, 2024 – The Association of English Language Education Students (AEELS), Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Brawijaya, Malang, Republic of Indonesia and Ethos! TESL Student Association (ETSA), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia met online via Zoom Meeting from 9.50 AM – 2.30 PM (Malaysian Time) in a virtual benchmarking effort between the English Language and TESL student associations.
The virtual meet up was attended by several guests of honour representing both institutions including Dr. Devinta Puspita Ratri (AEELS Advisor, the Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Brawijaya), Ms. Munirah Mohd Izam (Senior Lecturer and ETSA Advisor, Faculty of Education, UiTM Puncak Alam), and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siti Maftuhah Damio (Representative Lecturer cum Liaison Officer, the Faculty of Education, UiTM Puncak Alam). Also in attendance were AEELS and ETSA High Committee representatives from both student associations led by Pasha Leyla Almirah (President of AEELS UB), Ainur Karimah Ghazali (President of ETSA UiTM), and Fuad Rohman (ETSA X AEELS Benchmarking Program Coordinator, from AEELS UB).
In an effort at realising UiTM’s Globally Reknowned University 2025 (GRU2025) Strategic Thrust 2: Global Excellence aspiration, the virtual meet up listed several objectives focussing on Strategic Theme 5: Industry, Community & Alumni Smart Partnership. The objectives of the meet up aimed to empower student leadership and activism by improving organisational management skills through a comparative study on targeted key performance indicators and current organisational performance, to exchange ideas and gain insights on best practices on high-impact academic, leadership, volunteering based programs, and to discuss potential and possible areas of collaborations within the global academic industry between ETSA UiTM and AEELS UB in the future based on mutual interest in student empowerment.
The benchmarking meeting began with welcoming speeches from advisors representing both institutions. AEELS and ETSA then took turns in presenting each institution to one another before breaking into several Focused Group Discussion (FGD) between similar bureaus and departments in ETSA and AEELS. The FGDs outcomes were then presented aimed at gaining insights on the flow of work, best practices in organisational management, as well as to identify potential collaboration proposals and opportunities. The meeting ended with an E-Certificate exchange ceremony between AEELS UB and ETSA UiTM.
The AEELS X ETSA virtual benchmarking meet up’s success reaffirmed UiTM’S commitment in fostering global outlook and network among its students in light of UiTM’s GRU2025 aspirations.