After a long wait for their official graduation ceremony, more than 750 Quest International University (QIU) graduates here celebrated their academic success in person at the institution’s 6th Convocation Ceremony.
The event, presided over by QIU Council Chairman Dato’ Sri Dr Vijay Eswaran and QIU Chancellor Tun Arifin Zakaria, was held over two days on August 13 and 14.
The grand ceremony gathered over 2,000 graduates and their families at the iconic Royal Perak Golf Club. Students graduating from the classes of 2020 and 2021 and specific intakes finishing in 2022 were honoured across four sessions.
Diplomas, Bachelor’s degrees and Postgraduate degrees were conferred to alums from six faculties – the Faculties of Social Sciences, Integrated Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Computing and Engineering, Business and Management, and Medicine and Health Sciences.
The Malaysian and international graduates and their loved ones were all smiles as they reconnected after the separation brought on by COVID-19 restrictions. Nonetheless, the university implemented various guidelines to ensure responsible co-mingling.
Two valedictorians, Kourtney Goh from the Bachelor of Mass Communication (Honours) Advertising programme and Leng Man Jun from the Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) programme, were celebrated for their outstanding academic and co-curricular achievements during their time at QIU.
Four Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) graduates also received special recognition from the Malaysian Medical Association, Perak, with the “Best Outgoing Student Award”. The four exceptional students were Wong Chun Hoe, Rathika Sivaji, Mohamad Shafiq bin Zahari, and Elaine Goh Wan Qi.
In his message, Dato’ Sri Dr Vijay urged the graduates to emulate QIU’s DNA to ‘Adapt, Adjust and Accommodate.’
“This means you must adapt to every situation in life. The world of tomorrow is unpredictable and dramatically different. Adapting means learning new things and then unlearning them. You cannot relearn until you learn to unlearn,” he explained.
“Your actual path in life begins right now. As you step into this new world, first adapt and be prepared to relearn. Adjusting also means you must learn to give in. If you cannot adjust and learn to bend, you will break.
“And finally, to accommodate, you must constantly acquire new skills, cultures, languages, and approaches. It is the only way you will live differently from your parents. To thrive, you must survive; to survive, you must have the drive,” Dato’ Sri Vijay added.
In his speech, Tun Arifin said, “Over more than a decade, we have been proud and supportive of the thousands of QIU alumni who are part of our family. Many have gone on to great lengths in serving the country in the public and the private sectors, in diverse industries, and across all state lines. QIU remains proud of the achievements of these valued alumni, and we are truly looking forward to witnessing the accomplishment of the graduating class of today.” he added.
