Accessibility and equity (diversity) to quality affordable education has always been the Founder’s vision. Thus, his penultimate commitment towards social entrepreneurship is by assigning MSU into MSU Foundation through which profits are ploughed back into the Foundation. Fees are kept at an affordable rate as profit is not the goal of the University. To assist the under-privileged students, irrespective of race or religion, MSU Foundation disbursed about RM21 million worth of scholarships and financial assistance annually to ensure that they will successfully graduate. To-date 1,432 students have benefited from these scholarships and many have graduated to lead successful career and being able to support their families and contribute back to society.

MSU established the Jumpstart program to encourage the development of start-ups among the student entrepreneurs and are coached and guided by experience mentors under the Leadership and Entrepreneurship Advancement Institute (LEAD). To-date, 200 student entrepreneurs have their business operationalised.

Being an engaged university, all staff and students participated in various community engagement sustainable development goal (SDG) programs that involves the urban poor, indigenous people, orphans and environment at local and international levels. Thus, Times Higher Education ranked the University at Top 301 in the world, for High Impact University. To further support the SDG initiatives, RM2.3 million was approved within the last two years to fund 118 research projects under the MSU Seed Grant. In addition, 21 external grants from industry, government and international valued at RM1.9 million were received to fund research and innovation projects.

Education is about unlocking potentials, transforming lives of the students that we touched, not merely a profit-making entity. Profit come as a consequence but not the goal. MSU is established to provide accessible, affordable and sustainable education ecosystem where quality is not compromise. It is an ecosystem that produce a holistic, balanced and well-rounded graduates who will contribute to the nation. The holistic approach will ensure that these graduates are not only excellent academically but have fundamental universal values such as, integrity, inter-cultural intelligence, gratitude and giving back to communities.

Education is a marathon not a sprint. Thus, sustainability is a key factor for long-term survival. The fruits of labour come after many years of nourishing and experimenting with the ecosystem. One should look beyond the financial returns. Sustainability means one need to keep the organization agile and collaborative to ensure the growth and adaptability of the organization to battle the everchanging landscapes of education. Keep up with the latest global trends in pedagogy, technology, societal and economic demand to ensure relevancy and adaptability of curriculum and able to provide a holistic learning experience. Overall, one need to have the patience, passion and persistence to achieve the ultimate objective of transforming lives.

Future success is about collaborative partnership. Entities within the education ecosystems must remove inefficiencies due to the disjointed policies and practices. It has resulted in unnecessary competitions, duplication of resources, underutilization of facilities and human expertise and wastage of financial resources. One key initiative is to promote and strengthen public-private partnership where institutions can seamlessly tap into each other’s strengths and advantages that will create competitive advantage not only for the institutions but also the nation as a whole.

Another collaborative partnership is with the industrial partners. This will encompass partnership in the areas of research and commercialization, global mobility, curriculum development, employability and entrepreneurship. It will ensure that the curriculum and learning experience of the graduates are aligned with the needs of the industry and the nation. An aligned ecosystem will ensure high employability, adequate supply of manpower for the nation, reduced wastage in financial resources and providing a rich ecosystem for research and commercialization.

The third agenda is about internationalization. It is about bringing out MSU brand philosophy to the world and bringing the world into MSU. Internalization will see an increase of our offshore campuses from current three to ten. It also means bringing in the international diversity and experiences into our own campuses through international faculty members and students and enhancing MSU’s global mobility programs.

Fourth agenda will be on talent management. Future success is dependent on readiness of talent pool for succession planning. MSU shall invest on talent management and development for future leaders.