The HEAD Foundation (THF) is deepening its links in Malaysia as a recent visit by members of its senior management showed. The Academic Director of THF, Professor S. Gopinathan, was in Kuala Lumpur recently to meet with three current and future partners of the Foundation. He was accompanied by Mr. Malminderjit Singh, Associate Director of Public Affairs and Communications at THF.
The trip began with a series of meetings at the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus, where Prof. Gopinathan and Mr. Singh met with senior faculty members of the School of Education, including its Head, Associate Professor S. Ganakumaran. They also met with the university’s leadership, namely the Vice-Provost for Teaching & Learning, Prof. Ong Fon Sim, and Vice-Provost for Research & Knowledge Exchange, Prof. Claire O’ Malley. All of these meetings yielded substantive progress in discussing collaboration in research and capacity-building projects. Thereafter, Prof. Gopi also delivered a talk to staff and students of the university on Singapore’s education system.
The team from THF visited the University of Malaya the following day where they met with Prof. Alma Harris and her team at the university’s Institute of Educational Leadership. Prof. Harris, who is the institute’s Director, is leading a research project on Leading School Turnaround and Improvement in Indonesia and Malaysia, which is funded by THF and so the meeting presented an opportunity for both teams to discuss updates on its progress. Later, the team met with staff of the university’s The Centre for Research in International and Comparative Education (CRICE), where they discussed collaboration in potential projects and contributions to the Foundation’s publication.
Prof. Gopi also drew on his links with consulting firm McKinsey & Co.’s education practice as we met with their practice leader. Besides drawing on each other’s insights, the meeting also threw up some strong possibilities for collaboration in the near future, including a potential conference for policy makers on the more effective use of OECD educational data.
