Today senior leaders from Innovative Research Universities (IRU) will join their Malaysian counterparts in a forum that targets how universities in both countries are responding to the digital revolution.

Hosted by Universiti Technologi Malaysia, YBhg Datin Ir. Siti Hamisah binti Tapsir, Deputy Director General (Public Higher Education Institutions), Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education will open the Forum.

The forum will examine the possible shapes of Learning and Teaching in the future, how New Learning Technologies are driving change and the Physical and Virtual Environments supporting the new worlds of university learning. Discussion will confront predictions that campus based universities will no longer be needed and explore the potential for online learning.

“We are very pleased to be returning to Malaysia after the inaugural IRU delegation in 2012. That delegation, which focussed on research linkages, led to many return visits by Malaysian Universities to IRU members in Australia”, said Professor Barney Glover, IRU Chair and Vice-Chancellor of Charles Darwin University.

“We are confident that the Forum we will strengthen those links through its focus on universities’ learning and teaching challenges” Professor Glover said.

The Forum is part a two day visit by senior IRU leaders to Malaysia which involves meetings with the Ministry of Education, leaders of Malaysian universities and with representatives of Malaysia’s business groups.