KOTA KINABALU: The University College Sabah Foundation (UCSF) received a scholar from Oxford University recently at its campus in Sembulan. The Oxford Scholar, Dato Dr Afifi al-Akiti, visited Sabah for the first time and was given a tour of the UCSF campus, following the invitation by the university. Dr. Afifi recounted his experience as an international scholar and highlighted the University of Oxford at a special sharing session with senior UCSF officials. He also proposed some areas for collaboration that could be explored.
In the discussion, the Chairman of the UCSF Board of Directors and Board of Governors, Datuk Mohd Yaakub Hj Johari, gave his views on the potential areas of collaboration and emphasized the benefits of collaborating with Oxford for Sabah.
During the meeting, the Vice-Chancellor of UCSF, Dr. Rafiq Idris, introduced the university college and expressed his interest in the potential areas of collaboration between UCSF and Oxford.
In general, several ideas were highlighted as potential avenues of collaboration, including academic chairs, fellowship programmes, sabbatical programmes, and research partnership.
According to Dr. Rafiq, he hopes that the things being discussed can be materialized in the near future and that UCSF, together with Yayasan Sabah, can be a gateway for Sabahans to study at the University of Oxford.
Dato’ Dr. Afifi al-Akiti is the Kuwait Fellow in Islamic Studies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and a Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Theology and Religion, Oxford University’s oldest faculty. He is the first Malaysian to hold a post of this calibre at this esteemed institution. His areas of expertise are Islamic theology, law, and science. Since 2010, Dato’ Dr Afifi has been listed in The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims worldwide.-pr/BNN
