34TH IIUM CONVO BOOK

11 34th IIUM Convocation Ceremony Majlis Konvokesyen IIUM ke-34 International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) is the manifestation of one of the major aspirations of Muslim scholars in Malaysia to have an Islamic university in the country in order to lead the Muslim ummah in all branches of knowledge. The plan to establish IIUM was revealed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Fourth and current Prime Minister of Malaysia, on 12 January 1982 after deliberating with the Education Minister, senior government officers and senior academics from local universities of that time. The university was officially established on 20 May 1983 by the Government of Malaysia. The philosophy of IIUM was inspired by the outcomes of the First World Conference on Muslim Education 1977 held in Makkah. IIUM was founded under the Companies Act of 1965 that enabled it to use English and Arabic as the medium of instruction and enhance its global orientation. IIUM integrates Islamic values and worldview into its humanities, scientific and technical curricula, befitting its university slogan “The Garden of Virtue and Knowledge”. This is reflected in IIUM's educational philosophy and logo. IIUM aspires to restore the roles of Muslims in education and knowledge creation and acquisition and to contribute to the improvement of quality of life for all humankind. Befitting the Premier International Islamic Research University (PREMIER) status awarded by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) on 17 December 2014, it provides an extensive, comprehensive learning environment conducive for conducting advanced research in various disciplines. It is the quality of the learning, competitive knowledge and research environment that attracted the high concentration of talent (faculty and students) for which IIUM is well known. In addition to regular undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, IIUM offers various postgraduate, professional and leadership training programmes especially in its niche areas such as Islamic Services and Products. In 2015, the University was recognised as the pioneer in the discipline of Islamic Banking and Finance globally and is now considered the global referral point for the discipline. In addition to academic excellence, IIUM ensures that the students are trained to be responsible, imbued with good ethics, high moral values and professionalism, lifelong learning, managerial and entrepreneurial skills as well as leadership skills. IIUM lays great emphasis on good character or Budi as part of the education process of its students, ensuring they have good moral values. This is in line with the Islamic teachings which emphasize developing good moral character. IIUM English debaters have received many international accolades in the recent years. IIUM is currently ranked 12th in the World Debate Cumulative Ranking Table as of 2014, which ranks world varsity debate teams’ cumulative achievements for the preceding 5 years. IIUM debate team was the first Asian team to become the Overall Champion of the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championship in 2016 in the 42 years history of the competition. They have also topped Asian circuit by becoming the winner of the United Asian Debating Championship in 2016 and wining the Asian British Parliamentary (ABP) Debating Championship twice - the Jakarta ABP in 2016 and the Hanoi ABP in 2018, with IIUM debaters winning the award of the Best Speaker of Asia several times, including in 2018. IIUM have also won the prestigious Cambridge Intervarsity Debating Competition in 2016 and an IIUM debater was awarded the Overall Best Speaker for Cambridge IV. Locally, IIUM has also won the Malaysia Debate Open for two years in a row (2016-2017), besides continuing the legacy of winning the prestigious Royal Intervarsity Debating Championship by becoming the Grand Finalist in 2017 and the Champion of the 2018’s edition. The IIUMMalay language debating team won the Environmental Debate Competition three years in a row and emerged as the Champion of the Pertandingan Debat Terbuka Ilmu Khas (DeTIK) in 2017 and 2018. In the 5 years since DeTik has been introduced, IIUM has won 4 out of the 5 championships. In 2018, the IIUM Malay debate teams dominated INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA