Dr Mahathir Conferred Honorary Doctorate by UniKL
Bernama – 17/4/2006
Kuala Lumpur - Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was conferred an honorary doctorate in engineering technology by Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) Monday.

He received the scroll from UniKL Chancellor the Tengku Mahkota of Pahang Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah at a special convocation ceremony here.

The award is in recognition of Dr Mahathir's contribution to developing the fields of engineering and technology in the country.

He is also said to have been instrumental in the process towards the setting up of the private university on Aug 20, 2002.

The conferment made him the first person to received the highest academic award from UniKL, a subsidiary of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara).

In his acceptance speech, Dr Mahathir called on the university to act as a medium that generates academic excellence and become a skills training resource centre that produces more experts in the technical field.

"We need engineers who understand science and mathematics that are used to create computers, mobile phones, digital pictures and sounds, sensors and small computers that are used to control and coordinate all electronic and mechanical gadgets," he said.

More software and hardware engineers should be produced from time to time so that new discoveries in the electronic and computer industries could be explored, he said.

To produce more academicians highly skilled in the fields of technology and engineering, universities should have a more authoritative teaching force and be willing to provide more modern and sophisticated teaching tools, he said.
Source: Bernama | www.bernama.com