Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) has signed a memorandum with University of Nizwa (UoN) Oman to build stronger academic and research reputations between both institutions.

The MoU will emphasise cooperation in the areas of joint collaborative research, joint supervision of postgraduate studies, joint publication and student exchange.

To mark this occasion, a virtual document exchange ceremony was held recently between both parties. UTP was represented by its Vice Chancellor Professor Ts. Dr Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Mutalib while UoN was represented by its Chancellor Professor Ahmed Al Rawahi.

According to Professor Mohamed Ibrahim, UTP is constantly expanding and growing its network and collaborative efforts through establishing strategic collaborations with universities to support its aspiration to be internationally recognised as a partner of choice for industries and scientific communities.​​

“The signing of the MoU is pivotal in strengthening and maintaining UTP’s sustainable relationship with UoN and, in future, with other institutions in Oman.

“We hope this collaboration will also pave the way to attract more prospective Omani students to study in UTP and the Southeast Asian countries. This will strengthen our higher education value proposition, capacity and capabilities in Malaysia," he said.

Moving forward with the partnership, UTP and UoN will roll out the student exchange programme in September this year. Moreover, UTP, through its Management and Humanities (MH) Department will develop a UTP-MBA in Energy Management module for UoN’s MBA programme.

The MOU was initiated after a research visit to UoN last year by Haryanni Harun and Associate Professor Dr Ahmad Shahrul Nizam from UTP Institute of Contaminant Management and Azelin Mohamed Noor from UTP Institute of Sustainable Building. The visit was to engage UoN as a collaborator for a research under Yayasan UTP grant.

Since then both universities have achieved significant milestones. Firstly, UoN is the international co-organiser for the International Conference for Management, Social Sciences and Humanities (ICMeSH) for UTP World Engineering, Science and Technology Congress (ESTCON) 2020 which will be held virtually from 13 to 15 July 2021. Secondly, UoN was the co-organiser of UTP Inaugural Virtual International Seminar (VIS) 2020 held September last year. Finally, co-authorship of two papers between staff from UTP MH Department and UoN College of Economics, Management and Information System.