Nurturing Industrial Revolution 4.0 Ready Graduates Through Sustainable Academic Programmes

Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) is characterized by a range of new technologies that are combining the physical, digital, and biological worlds that impact all discipline, industry, economy, and education. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak has responded appropriately to prepare both educators and students to thrive the future by rethinking and redesigning their current curriculum approach in academic programmes. This paper discusses on how Universiti Malaysia Sarawak nurture the IR4.0 ready graduates through robust academic programmes in two perspectives: (1) sustainability of academic programmes and (2) monitoring of High Impact Educational Practices (HIEPs) and Future Ready Curriculum (FRC) framework implementation. Sustainability of academic programmes are calculated based on four indicators: programme popularity, graduate on time, graduate employability, and merit of entry. HIEPs and FRC implementation in academic programmes are monitored based on their respective criteria via key performance indicator (KPI) internal audit. The academic programme sustainability index data for the student intake between 2014 and 2016 indicated that most programmes require strengthening strategies or curriculum modification in order to produce future ready graduates. Excellent percentage of HIEPs and FRC implementation in academic programmes were recorded in 2018 and 2023 (90-100%). In conclusion, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak strategic initiatives showed its strong commitment towards enhancement of academic programme for nurturing IR4.0 ready graduates.