It is indeed a great pleasure for me to write a few words on UNIRAZAK CASE WRITERS CLUB (UCW).
UNIRAZAK CASE WRITERS CLUB (UCW) was first launched in 2009 with a humble beginnings of 19 founding members who completed the case writing trainings in 2007 and 2008. It was established with the aim to support UNIRAZAK’s principle of innovative teaching using cases in class. The objective then was to get all academics of UNIRAZAK to join and actively contribute to UCW by writing cases and using these cases as their teaching materials in addition to what they have been using in the past with the hope that through these published cases it could help academics to engage students and foster students’ higher order thinking in class discussions.
Since then, UCW has made great strides. Membership is open to postgraduate students and academic affiliates of UNIRAZAK. Currently UCW’s membership has grown to more than 100 members. The Club has published three volumes of case studies. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Volumes have 21 Cases, 24 Cases and 26 Cases respectively. Through these published cases it has helped academics of UNIRAZAK to engage students and foster higher order thinking in class discussions.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
The club has also organised case writing competition, and international conferences which received overwhelming response, besides conducting a number of trainings for its members. UCW is also proud to state that its members have been commissioned by a number of corporations to write cases and these works have been published. Not only that, UCW members have also been engaged to provide training for employees in the private sector to enable them to write cases in various identified themes.
With regard to future plans and activities, in the pipeline is the UNIRAZAK International Case Conference which will be held on 17-18 January 2017, jointly organized by UNIRAZAK and Yayasan Tun Ismail Ali Berdaftar Chair in Leadership. Work is already underway and we hope that it will be another success for UCW. Apart from this, UCW is organising itself by forming working groups in various fields, headed by academics in their specialisation area, and to create its own Case Clearing House to provide a learning curve in support of Malaysia’s agenda as the education hub. So things are moving in a dynamic forward direction in UCW.
I believe the achievements made thus far would not have been possible without the groundswell support from the President and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Datuk Seri Dr. Md Zabid Bin Abdul Rashid, as well as the strong commitment and co-operation of UCW members of the past and present. If all of us as UCW members can continue to render our cooperation and commitment, we can strive to bring UCW to greater heights and achieve higher grounds. I am hopeful that UCW can consolidate, develop its position and gain recognition at both the local and international levels.
Teaching and learning styles are, by their very nature, changing and in recent years case studies have been documented as having an important role in developing skills and knowledge in students. Within that scenario, I hope UCW will play a crucial role in our effort to provide the quality and innovative teaching.
PROFESSOR DR. NIK ROSNAH WAN ABDULLAH
President
UNIRAZAK Case Writers Club