Sejahtera Academic Framework (SAF)

138 137 compartments per room to accommodate four students is to allow students to interact with one another while maintaining their own personal and privacy space. The mahallah should be seen as the students’ first IIUM new family. Foreign students especially should feel at home with mahallah mates to support them whenever they are homesick. Mahallah must rise up and play greater roles in nurturing students. The standard of student activities at mahallah must be raised and linked to the University's aspirations. Activities should no longer be confined to mahallah level only, but also seek to put IIUM on the global stage. New activities with new concepts should be created, created if necessary, rather than just relying on or continuing the current activities or traditions. Activities should be implemented due to their impacts, and not because they are inherited from previous years. Current activities which are non-impactful should be discontinued and replaced with better ones. All students, rather than a select few, must be involved in students activities at mahallah . Mahallah must also provide a surrounding that instills values and adab amongst students. Students must be taught the lifestyle of respecting one another and respecting the environment. Mahallah must encourage students in terms of intercultural dialogues, and understanding and respecting each other’s culture. Wastage and excessiveness must be eliminated, especially in relation to use of resources like electricity and water. The culture of cleanliness must be ingrained in each student. The Academia which is centred at the kulliyyah is a place where students are able to find their strength as well as to grow their self-esteem. Kulliyyah becomes a platform for the students to explore their strength further and facilitate them in securing opportunities that would be beneficial for them in a real world. Outside the confines of the classroom, informal interactions with murabbi are necessary towards the holistic development of the student. Community engagement enhances students’ leadership skills while promoting awareness and compassion among students which are also the main characteristics in good Khalīfah and Hamba Allah . Students would then be more encouraged to work and live together as a community in solving the community issues at hand. In this millennium, what transpires in the virtual environment should not be taken for granted. The University is now taking in undergraduates who are considered “millennials” - one characteristic of which is that they are digital natives. Social media is not just a part of their life, in many cases, it is a huge part of who they are. The University should leverage, rather than lamenting, on this by engaging the students in various ways via the virtual environment. The murabbi does not have to be physically present, but a good one will make their presence felt - and sought after - virtually. The students should have safe spaces in their virtual world - a place they feel comfortable and validated - and that will support their quest to become better Muslims without being over-bearing nor punitive. The students shall among themselves become supporters of one another virtually, and in this volatile world, this is invaluable. Mental health has steadily become a major issue for more students over time. It is imperative that the students’ life provided by IIUM, physically and virtually, allows the students to develop into mature and resilient individuals; for only as people who can care for themselves will they be able to care for others. The system to support the students’ mental health shall be put in place. This shall encompass preventive and proactive measures in addition to intervention and treatment. The mental health framework shall also be based on Islamic principles, in addition to empirically proven approaches, to be aligned with SAF. Structure Follows Strategy Strategy implementation must be supported by strong and appropriate structure. Thus, new administration and execution models must be put in place, even at the expense of age-old ones, if the latter do not facilitate or align to the current strategy implementation. In the case of SAF, several measures have been undertaken to ensure the right models are put in place to support SAF implementation. Several task forces have been established to look into some key aspects of SAF. The main responsibilities of these task forces are to review, realign and, if necessary, reconceptualise ta’aruf (orientation for students), university core courses (UniCORE), community engagement and mental health initiatives into a framework that is in alignment with SAF, as well as with the University vision and missions. SAF aims, among other things, to deliver values-based education through both formal and informal education at the University. To prepare students for this, ta’aruf has been reconceptualised to condition the mind and outlook of the new students. Thorugh ta’aruf , they must be made aware that once enrolled in IIUM, they will experience education that puts values and intellectual competencies on equal importance. Thus, new ta’aruf modules have been developed to internalise the vision and missions of IIUM, and to carry the pursuit of balanced graduates and Insān Sejahtera into the activities conducted during Ta’aruf Week. The first round of these modules implementation was carried out with success during the Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS) Ta’aruf Week (2020/2021). Similarly, this reconceptualised ta’aruf was introduced to the new undergraduate and postgraduate intakes for 2020/2021 at the University’s other campuses with enhanced modules appropriate for the higher level of studies as compared to the CFS. Whilst values-based education should be prevalent in all forms of education at the University, SAF gives greater emphasis to its delivery through the UniCORE. The UniCORE has been a staple of IIUM undergraduate programmes since the inception of the University. Its essence was to provide an adequate understanding of Islamic fundamental worldview to enable the students to