05DISCOVER UBD2019 where His Majesty emphasized producing future-ready graduates who are capable of creating job opportunities and are not reliant on existing jobs. His Majesty added that multidisciplinary entrepreneurship projects, if managed properly, can contribute towards economic growth, especially in supporting the development of Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSME).As part of UBD’s commitment to developing entrepreneurial graduates, UBD established the Entrepreneurship Village (EV) in 2014. To date, over 300 start-ups have been founded by UBD students, with businesses that cover Food & Beverage, Technology and a wide range of services. Many graduates have moved on to become successful entrepreneurs, opening doors for themselves and providing opportunities for others. EV provides foundational entrepreneurship education with the embedded values of sustainability and service to the community. It provides an entrepreneurial platform for students to start their own businesses.One such student is Muhammad Azizi Amidi Haji Rusli’s, whose dream of “becoming the CEO of a gaming company, looking out of a window and seeing employees hard at work,” became a reality after developing his first prototype under the EV mentorship during his Discovery Year in 2019. The BA in Economics student founded the gaming company, “Silent Resolve Games” as part of his Incubation programme and now has a crew of designers and programmers.For Nor Syariena @ Nor Diyanah Abd Rahman, starting up Panther Guild began as a personal journey of self-empowerment and advocacy for women. “Doing business without goals is the same as sailing along aimlessly,” she said, crediting her time at EV with helping her to develop skills to focus and strategies to expand the market.Another student, Muhammad Abdul Qawi Shafiq Haji Shrom knew that he wanted to go into the Incubation programme for his Discovery Year. At its peak, Hiswey Event Management had five staff and successfully handled product launches. He sees the great advantages of being self-employed, including the opportunity to provide jobs for others. While his experience was “not necessarily easy,” he noted that starting is important. While he considers himself a sociable person, sessions with EV trained him to speak up in public. “Pitching is not a problem anymore,” he shared. “It also let me put theory into practice.”Recently, UBD launched The Startup Centre (USC) in collaboration with Darussalam Enterprise (DARe). It provides opportunities for UBD alumni and graduating students to spin-off their innovative ideas into successful ventures. The initiative provides a platform and the ecosystem for startup growth within the university that includes facilities, co-working space, mentoring and network support. It leverages on exposure to real market problems and opportunities, promoting multidisciplinary projects that aim to create employment through startups.Data from QS shows that UBD has made significant leaps in terms of both academic and applied research. Key areas of research include those in which Brunei Darussalam has a strategic advantage, including Biodiversity and the Environment, Energy, Asian Studies, Islamic Studies and Governance, Data Analytics, Herbal and Medicinal research, and the recent addition of International Education research. Applied research in UBD places an emphasis on innovations with commercial potential. Commercialisation efforts in the university include partnerships with private companies. Smart Coating Technologies (B) Sdn Bhd is an example of a spin-off company commercialising industrial coating technology which was developed in UBD. Research and development was carried out in collaboration with the Japan-based Pixela Corporation.As a consequence of focusing on basic and applied research, UBD’s publications and impact have risen exponentially over the years. Over the last 5 years, UBD has recorded a total of 1,431 papers and a total of 12,500 citations. The university’s latest Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is 1.38, which shows that UBD’s publications have 38 percent more impact than the global average. For the second year in a row, UBD has been ranked as a Very High Research Intensive University by QS.UBD’s GenNEXT programme focuses on real-world experiential learning. Photo: Azhar Ismat
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