Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Jeli Campus - Community engagement : a strategic approach

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) Jeli Campus is less than 2 years now and due to its geographical location, it requires more time to compete with other campuses of other universities in the country. Therefore, UMK Jeli Campus believes that the fastest and most impactful strategy to position itself is through community engagement, and thus it is given high priority, since to achieve academic and research excellence are relatively time consuming. Since its operation, Jeli Campus has been involved in more than 100 community engagement programmes which were categorised into dissemination and sharing of knowledge and mindset change programmes, skills development, enhancing economic and entrepreneurship activities, provision of aids and collaboration with the community for income generation. UMK Jeli Campus has rebranded its roles to include making the campus relevant to the community. The target group ranges from school children, women, youth, senior citizens, government officials, orphans, underprivileged community, entrepreneurs and the Temiar Orang Asli community. The majority of the community engagement programmes aimed at enriching knowledge within the community, improving lifestyle and standards of living, increasing income and economic stability, provide opportunities for employment and encourage collaborative initiatives within the communities. Apart from the local communities, engagement programmes have also considered international initiatives, including the establishment of The Regional Network on Poverty Eradication (RENPER). At the same time, in trying to consolidate the community engagement, UMK Jeli Campus has established the Campus Community Transformation Centre (CCTC) which will ensure that all engagement programmes will have impacts in transforming the community. Transformation refers to the positive changes within the community that will bring the community to a greater height. Transforming communities will be the way forward for the future community engagement programmes and the success will be measured based on the outcomes as a result of the programmes implemented. The impact of Jeli Campus on the community was demonstrated based on the finding on a research carried out in collaboration with ECER which concluded that the establishment of UMK Jeli Campus has significantly affected the economic status of the community and the infrastructure development, particularly in the Jeli District.