On the 17th of December in 2022, the Faculty of Pharmacy of UITM Puncak Alam conducted a programme which was named as RX-HOMECOMING HIGH-TEA. The programme was organized with collaboration between Society of Pharmacy Students (SOPHYS) and Alumni (ALPHA). ALPHA is an organization of alumni that were students of Pharmacy UiTM. The objectives of the programme were to establish a new horizon for future alumni-current students programmes, to strengthen the relationship between alumni, staff, and students of the UITM Faculty of Pharmacy, and to plan, generate more ideas and income for
future alumni-current students activities. The programme’s target groups were current students and alumni of Bachelor of Pharmacy, UiTM Puncak Alam that involves all alumni from Rx1 to the newest Rx21. The programme was conducted to discuss the upcoming programme such as The Rx Gala Dinner, mentoring system, and prominent alumni. 14 members of the organizing committee were involved in the programme including Mr Ahmad Azani Bin Othman as the advisor of the programme.
The programme started at 2.00pm with singing of the NEGARAKU and WAWASAN SETIA UITM. The opening of the event started with speech from the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Prof. Dato Dr. Abu Bakar Abdul Majeed, said that “alumni as part of the faculty” and the event continued with a presentation by the Deputy Dean of Industry, Community, Alumni and Network (ICAN), Dr. Norkasihan Ibrahim. During the presentation, students and alumni contributions were explained and some key performance indexes were illustrated such as the number of alumni successfully becoming entrepreneurs, number of official partnership activities, number of University Social Responsibility programmes, and etc. The 5 trusts were emphasized during the presentation including the talent to develop a strong pool of knowledge experts and practitioners, innovation, business and community, market, and the last one, policy. The presenter explained about the programme characteristics that can be identified as a Knowledge Transfer Programme (KTP). The characteristics include having the transfer of knowledge, the programme should be not one-off, research element, quadruple helix where involving 4 groups of audiences including students, and the programme should have positive impact for the audiences.
The main agenda of the Hi-Tea program was presentation and discussion about the upcoming programs presented by the representative of the student Faculty of Pharmacy, Nur Adhwa’ Faqihah Binti Zulkifli. The contents of the presentation were from the Letter of Intent (LOI) which is a letter of intent for cooperation between Society of Pharmacy Students (SOPHYS) and Alumni of Faculty Pharmacy (ALPHA). The presentation highlights some forms of cooperation which are conducting engagement between alumni and current students, skill exchange and exposure in exchange for financial and logistics, increased exposure and promotion for those who assist financially and logistically to the faculty program and others. Open discussion was led by the emcee, Nur Shariena Chong Binti Mohamad Hafiz Chong Abdullah, giving the opportunity to the students, alumni and staff to give their opinions towards the upcoming programs. The opinions and suggestions from the audiences were collected. First and foremost, one of the Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar (MPP) representatives opined for the creation of a long-term organization between SOPHYS and alumni students. The representative of Rx3 stated that the database of the alumni system should be updated and provided with more specific information and the representative of Rx19 advised to have a mentor mentee session where alumni as the mentor substitute the lecturer which may increase the engagement between alumni and students. And the most important opinion was given by the Deputy Dean of Industry, Community, Alumni and Network (ICAN), Dr. Norkasihan Ibrahim, that the integrity of the student and faculty system should be wider.
At the end of the program, the signing of Letter of Intent (LOI) ceremony commenced between the President of Society of Pharmacy Students (SOPHYS), Syahira Ezani Binti Ali, and Mr. Hasryn Azzuar Bin Mohd Khairy, representative of ALPHA as an approval between two organizations. At the same time, the hi-tea session started right after the signing Letter of Intent (LOI) and the photography session was held together with all the representatives from each batch of the Faculty of Pharmacy. To conclude, the program was conducted to improve all aspects in conducting an event and improvement in relationship between alumni and current UITM pharmacy students with the suggestions and advice from all the staff, alumni and students of pharmacy. The programme ended positively with compliments from the alumni and staff about how students as an organization committee managed to conduct such a great programme and hoped for more great programmes in the future together with alumni and staff.
Written by: Muhammad Fariq Asyraf Bin Hamizan
