Dr Afifi (centre) with Mohd Yaakub, Dr Rafiq and other senior officials of UCSF.
KOTA KINABALU: The University College Sabah Foundation (UCSF) campus in Sembulan was visited by a scholar from Oxford University recently.
The Oxford Scholar Dato Dr Afifi al-Akiti, who was on his first visit to Sabah following the invitation by the university, was given a tour of the UCSF campus.
Dr Afifi recounted his experience as an international scholar and highlighted Oxford University at a special sharing session with senior UCSF officials. He also proposed some areas for collaboration that could be explored.
In the discussion, the Chairman of the UCSF Board of Directors and Board of Governors, Datuk Mohd Yaakub Haji Johari gave his views on the potential areas of collaboration and emphasised the benefits of collaborating with Oxford for Sabah.
During the meeting, the Vice-Chancellor of UCSF Dr Rafiq Idris introduced the university college and expressed his interest in the potential areas of collaboration between UCSF and Oxford.
In general, several ideas were highlighted as potential avenues of collaboration, including academic chairs, fellowship programmes, sabbatical programmes and research partnerships.
Dr Rafiq hopes that the things being discussed can be materialised in the near future and that UCSF, together with Yayasan Sabah, can be a gateway for Sabahans to study at Oxford University.
Dr Afifi is the Kuwait Fellow in Islamic Studies at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and a Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Theology and Religion, Oxford University’s oldest faculty. He is the first Malaysian to hold a calibre post at this esteemed institution. His areas of expertise are Islamic theology, law and science. Since 2010, Dr Afifi has been listed in The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims worldwide. – ends
