Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman: Building a Smart Campus to Lead the Digital Transformation of Education in Malaysia

Digital technology is now leading the strong rise of the digital economy. Based on the national digital development strategy, it has become a new mission for all countries to promote digital transformation in education sector and cultivate talents in the digital era.

H3C helps Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), a comprehensive university with the dedication to achieving excellence in teaching and research in Malaysia, to take a new step in the digital transformation. The initiatives have ensured uninterrupted online teaching and learning even during the epidemic by providing strong support for more than 21,000 students and faculty. As a leader in digital solutions, H3C has fully empowered a great number of top universities in China, such as Tsinghua University, Shandong University, and the South China University of Technology, to develop smart education, during which process H3C has accumulated rich industrial experience.

Ir. Prof. Dr. Yow Ho Kwang, Vice President of Internationalization and Academic Development of UTAR, said that "digitalization has brought tremendous benefit to us, providing a conducive online learning environment to our students and also to our staff working remotely from home. We foresee that our digital transformation process will continue in the post-pandemic time."

Leveraging digital technology to enable smart education

The Malaysian authorities have consistently increased investment in ICT fields in recent years, aiming to support the digital transformation of local industries in talents, processes and technology. The sudden outbreak of the epidemic has further increased the need for digital transformation across industries. Online learning has become a new norm in the education industry amidst the pandemic, and digital transformation is imminent; H3C's technological strength, industrial experience, and regional layout fit the strategic needs of Malaysia, and the cooperation with UTAR is a typical case.

As a non-profit university founded by the UTAR Education Foundation, UTAR offers more than 120 academic courses for more than 21,000 students. In March 2020, the Malaysian government initiated the Movement Control Order (MCO), and the faculty members and students have to work or study remotely from home. Therefore, UTAR decided to change the lecture modes from physical to all online classes through a cloud management platform, and there has been thereafter a tremendous increase in data traffic of the university's internal cloud server.

Ir. Prof. Dr. Yow Ho Kwang said that the network infrastructure for the UTAR Kampar campus has been in place for years with the network backbone capacity supporting up to 1 Gbps connection. The impact of the pandemic has resulted in university's current capacity to no longer support the high amount of network needed for bandwidth-intensive activities such as online courses and video conferences. Besides, innovative solutions are also urgently needed to move the experiments virtually online. In face of these digitalization challenges, it is imperative for UTAR to improve and upgrade its campus network and wireless system. With practical experience across various industries and full-stack digital solutions, H3C precisely understands UTAR's business pain points, and provides solid and reliable technical support to facilitate its digital transformation.

Based on Wi-Fi 6 technology and Cloudnet Solution, H3C has fully deployed the campus network of UTAR Kampar campus. H3C's latest Wi-Fi 6 technology fully matches the needs in high-density access and high-capacity wireless networking, ensuring campus teachers and students smooth online teaching and learning experience anytime and anywhere, which significantly improves teaching efficiency and education quality.

H3C's latest generation wireless access points WA6622 has assisted the university to upgrade its connectivity by several times, aiding both lecturers and students to forward assignment files without being affected by internet speed, time and location. Cloudnet Solution integrates cutting-edge technologies such as AI, big data, and cloud computing to enable the campus' minimal network operation and maintenance, intelligent network optimization, and fault prediction, effectively safeguarding its teaching, research, and management.

"With H3C's professional support, we are confident that we will be able to digitalize our campus operations to adapt to Malaysia's rapidly changing economy," said Ir. Professor Dr. Ewe Hong Tat, President of UTAR.

Digital empowerment for a win-win situation

H3C's digital empowerment to UTAR does not stop here. Ir. Prof. Dr. Yow Ho Kwang said that UTAR will also work with H3C in the future to implement the talent enablement programs, including training certification programs, H3C network laboratory and also internship training programs to help cultivate more digital talents.

These initiatives of H3C will have long-term significance for the overall digital transformation of Malaysian education industry. Based on its "Cloud & AI Native" strategy and "Digital Brain 2021", H3C is committed to helping Malaysia seize the opportunities of smart future and unleash growth momentum with cutting-edge market insights and solid product technologies.

Learn more about the case study of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) at: https://www.h3c.com/en/d_202110/1476714_294554_0.htm.