366
The Internationalization and Promotional Strategies of Higher Institutional Centre of Excellence of Tropical Wood and Fibre
through the Quintuple Helix Conceptual Framework
1Khalina Abdan,*2Norfaryanti Kamaruddin,*3Ahmad Adlie Shamsuri
1Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
*E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Internationalization and promotion are associated but not the same matter. Internationalization contains the policies and practices commenced by academic systems and institutions and even persons to deal with the worldwide academic ecosystem. Promotion relates to publicizing a product, organization, or venture to increase sales or public awareness. The rationales for internationalization of high institutional centre of excellence involve the academic, the cultural/social, the economic, and many others. Specific initiatives such as knowledge sharing, research mentoring, innovation hub extension programs, and others have been put into place as part of the internationalization and promotional strategies of the Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products.
Keywords: Internationalization; knowledge sharing, research mentor, innovation hub extension
1. INTRODUCTION
The forestry sector and timber industry are facing a major challenge in balancing economic contributions with environmental sustainability as well as community well-being. The objective of HiCOE’s recognition of the Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP) is to assist the country in meeting and managing this challenge. The research program is designed based on a sustainable economic model (circular economy). The activities in the research program are implemented through the concept of the quintuple helix, which connects government, industry, academia, society, and the environment. Efforts are being intensified for visibility as a national reference centre in the field for tropical timber and fibres, especially timber from eucalyptus and bamboo, as well as fibres from oil palm and kenaf. The graduate studies program is enhanced across specializations through inbound and outbound programs highlighting INTROP’s credibility in concentrating on and pioneering sustainable forest plantation innovation efforts in Malaysia.
367 The tropical wood and fibre niche area covers the whole supply chain of the timber industry. It started from upstream, whereby the resources, screening, and plantation development were carried out. Consequently, it provides the resource to mid-stream activities, which involve bio composite product design and biopolymer processing, as well as pulp and paper technology. The niche area also covers the environmental economics assessment.
INTROP has the vision to be a referral centre in Tropical Bioresources and Biobased Materials of international repute. The vision is deliberately implemented by achieving its mission, to elevate lignocelluloses as one of the key drivers in the bioeconomy through dynamic innovations in tropical bioresources and biobased material. This paper aims to elaborate the strategy of HiCOE INTROP in internationalization activity as a regional referral centre in tropical wood and fibres.
The internationalization of higher education has grown more and more mature and has become increasingly important, complex, debatable, and even misunderstood. However, internationalization is wrong if it is presented to describe everything related to the long- distance, intercultural, global, or international world. Therefore, internationalization can lose its meaning and direction in relation to the five myths of internationalization of higher education:
international students as agents of internationalization, international reputation for quality benchmarks, international accreditation, international institutional agreements, and Global Branding. Instead, internationalization should become a more crucial process-based approach for better quality education and student competence (Rosyidah & Rosyidi, 2020). Educational ecosystems need to be conducive to helping educational institutions to best adapt their core businesses; teaching and learning, research and development, commercialization and innovation, to rapidly changing industry environments (Barokas & Barth, 2018).
Quadruple Helix models place a stronger focus on cooperation in innovation and, in particular, the dynamically intertwined processes of co-opetition, co-evolution and cospecialisation within and across regional and sectoral innovation ecosystems (Carayannis
& Campbell, 2009; Carayannis & Campbell, 2010; Carayannis & Campbell, 2012) that could serve as the foundation for diverse smart specialisation strategies (and introduce a move towards systemic and user-centric innovation structures) (Carayannis & Rakhmatullin, 2014).
2. HICOE INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGY
The conceptual framework of the internationalization strategy has been implemented upon acceptance of the acknowledgment from the “Jabatan Pengajian Tinggi” (JPT) on the
368 admission into HiCOE phase two in 2021. The main input was created based on the recommendation of JPT of the quintuple helix innovation framework, which describes the interactions within a knowledge economy on five (5) vital elements, namely university, industry, government, public, and the environment. This input is a game changer in the HiCOE action plan because it desires more depth and meaningful impact on university contributions. In addition, the impact may be toward the sustainability of niche areas to be competitive, relevant, and visible.
The international strategy was implemented through an interaction that was mainly driven by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) among top universities in Europe and Asia Pacific. Furthermore, the Memorandum of Agreement also takes place on a specific project basis. Some active MoU, NDA, and MoA have captured more interaction scale between the UPM partners focusing on tropical wood and fibre are the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Kanazawa Institute of Technology and Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research (MAScIR). In addition, the Centre De Cooperation Internationale En Recherche Agronomique Pour Le Development (CIRAD) France, Bangor University, United Kingdom, and Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland, are on the list (Pusat Strategi dan Perhubungan Korporat, 2022).
According to Chang Da Wan and Doria Abdullah (2021), significant developments are observed in internationalising public sectors, especially universities in research, with a focus on establishing international collaborations, securing international research grants, and joint publication activities (Wan & Abdullah, 2021).
However, in the niche of tropical wood and fibre, the collaboration has gone beyond standard activity, which also includes community and industrial engagement, exchange of knowledge and expertise through extensive webinars, mentor-mentee activity, and innovation hub extension programs.
International Conferences and Seminars
INTROP also organized many international conferences through a webinar to provide an active platform for sharing and disseminating research results. One of the international conferences that INTROP organized is International Conference on Sugar Palm and Allied Fibre Polymer Composites (SAPC). This conference focused on sugar palm and allied fibre composites which have high value-added to humans and the environment. SAPC can give impact to the
369 community through community engagement as it involves The Malaysian Society of Sugar Palm Development and Industry (PPIEM), which consists of a community from the local village.
Sugar palm is a multipurpose tree with several traditional uses for making numerous local products. Twelve sugar palm products were successfully developed, including sugar palm fibre, sugar palm starch, roofing, rope, brooms, bottle, brushes, vinegar, berries, liquid sugar, fined sugar, and block sugar. These products can lead to better socio-economic empowerment of the rural people by increasing revenues and creating more job opportunities (Sapuan, Ilyas
& Sherwani, 2020).
Figure 1a: Details of participation in various international knowledge-sharing sessions organised
370
Figure 1b: Details of speakers in various international knowledge-sharing sessions organised
International mentor mentee engagement
Professional talent in the niche area continues to be skilful and trained to become competent researchers. Therefore, INTROP develops the mentor and mentee activity in order to encourage young researchers, especially research officers, to gain valuable knowledge from their mentors. Therefore, mentors consisted of high-level professors from abroad, such as America, France, Japan, Spain, South Korea, Poland, and Thailand. The impacts that can be gained from the mentor and mentee activity are not only focused on the number of publications for research officers but also on developing research leadership among these young researchers. In addition, the activity is a long-term plan which can gain the trust between the mentor and the mentee, especially in creating high-quality research for producing high-impact research papers. Besides, it also can facilitate the development of appropriate training and supports to foster mentoring relationships in research and career settings (Keller et al., 2014).
The selection of the institutions and researchers to be engaged and attached to the young researchers is based on a long-term relationship that has been initiated for the past five
371 years and more. Making the engagement through mentor-mentee activity is to strengthen the ongoing activities and drive to have further programs involved a bigger group of researchers in UPM.
Figure 2: International Mentor mentee engagement and impact on INTROP HICOE internationalisation strategy
Innovation Hub Extension Program
This program begins with an initial discussion between the delegation Leave a Nest Co Ltd, Japan, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wan Zuhainis, Director of Academic Excellence Division and INTROP UPM. Leave a Nest is the world’s first start-up company to offer knowledge manufacturing process technology as a service with a passion for solving challenges (deep issues which need solving in society) (Vijaya, 2022).
INTROP HICOE has currently registered four innovation hubs and is seeking international input and knowledge through industrial engagement with Leave a Nest. Dr.
Yukihiro Maru, Group CEO of Leave a Nest, has two times visited INTRO with 12 business delegations, including the investor is looking forward to collaborating with UPM to bridge the corporates and university researchers to initiate the implementation of meaningful technology into the world, staying true with the company’s vision of advancing science and technology for
372 global happiness. The programme aims to be a strategic effort to increase the scale of commercialization research as well as the development of entrepreneurship programmes among researchers in Malaysia’s public universities.
Figure 3: Leave A Nest Group Delegations Visit to INTROP
3. CONCLUSION
Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products has specified the initiatives that have been applied for internationalization and promotional strategies. In addition, specific initiatives such as knowledge sharing, research mentoring, and innovation hub extension programs have been conducted as a High Institutional Centre of Excellence of Tropical Wood and Fibre.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are grateful to the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, for providing opportunities and funding in collaboration with international agencies through its
373 Higher Institution of Centre of Excellence (HICoE) recognition to INTROP since 2017.
REFERENCES
Barokas, J & Barth, I. (2018). Multi-stakeholder ecosystems in rapidly changing educational environments. IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 2018, pp.
1934-1938, doi: 10.1109/EDUCON.2018.8363472
Carayannis, E. G., & Campbell, D. (2009). ‘Mode 3’ and ‘Quadruple Helix’: toward a 21st century fractal innovation ecosystem. International Journal of Technology Management, 46(3/4). Available at: http://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=23374 Carayannis, E. G., & Campbell, D. (2010). Triple helix, quadruple helix and quintuple helix and
how do knowledge, innovation and the environment relate to each other? A proposed framework for a transdisciplinary analysis of sustainable development and social ecology. International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development, 1(1), 41–
69.
Carayannis, E. G., & Campbell, D. F. J. (2012). Mode 3 knowledge production in quadruple helix innovation systems: 21st-century democracy, innovation, and entrepreneurship for
development. New York:Springer. Available at:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=carayannis%20campbell%202012%20&sourc e=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.springer.com%2F cda%2Fcontent%2Fdocument%2Fcda_downloaddocument%2F9781461420613- c1.pdf%3FSGWID%3D0-0-45-
1263639p174250662&ei=rwlYUYfAI4uC9gTPlIDgCQ&usg=AFQjCNGQf7iygyCaUutMy dcY_18S_PRruQ&bvm=bv.44442042,d.eWU.
Carayannis, E.G. & Rakhmatullin, R. (2014). The Quadruple/Quintuple Innovation Helixes and Smart Specialisation Strategies for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in Europe and Beyond. J Knowl Econ 5, 212–239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-014-0185-8
https://introp.upm.edu.my/article/advanced_applications_of_sugar_palm_reinforced_polymer _composites-56872?L=en
Keller, T. E., Collier, P. J., Blakeslee, J. E., Logan, K., McCracken, K., & Morris, C. (2014).
Early career mentoring for translational researchers: mentee perspectives on challenges and issues. Teaching and learning in medicine, 26(3), 211-216.
Pusat Strategi dan Perhubungan Korporat. (2022). MOU. Retrieved Date, from Sept 6, 2022.
https://pspk.upm.edu.my/upload/dokumen/20211221082723Senarai_MoU_MoA_Aktif_
Dalam_Negara_sehingga_Disember_2021-1.pdf
Rosyidah, N., & Rosyidi, U. (2020). Internationalization in Higher Education: University’s Effective Promotion Strategies in Building International Trust. European Journal of Educational Research, 9(1), 351-361.
Sapuan, S., Ilyas, R.A. & Sherwani, S. (2020). Advanced applications of sugar palm reinforced polymer composites. 1-9.
Vijaya, S.I. (2022, July 15). Bridging Japanese Corporations, the Industry, and UPM Researchers Through Collaborations in Research Development and Commercialisation.
Retrieved September 6, 2022, from https://global.lne.st/news/2022/08/03/introp- upm_lvnsmy_seminar2022/
Wan, C.D & Abdullah, D. (2021). International Journal of Comparative Education and Development Vol. 23 No. 3, 2021 pp. 212-226 © Emerald Publishing Limited 2396-7404 DOI 10.1108/IJCED-08-2020-0052