Debriefing Meeting – PMMD and FD

Examiners’ Report form for Qualifying Assessment to PhD

The last Debriefing Meeting I chaired was held in March 2025, during which Dr. Wan Hairul served as our Senior Research Manager (SRM). However, his tenure at the Research Management Centre (RMC) was short-lived, lasting only 40 days. Subsequently, Nur Fatimah Marwar took over the responsibilities. In line with recent organizational restructuring, we no longer use the title SRM; the role has since evolved into two separate leadership functions—Head of Profund Unit and Head of Promans Unit.

Now, four months later, we convened the next Debriefing Meeting, which marks a renewed commitment to holding these sessions regularly every month, InsyaAllah. Despite current manpower limitations, the Project Management and Monitoring Division (PMMD) continues to strive toward operational stability and effectiveness.

The Debriefing Meeting serves as a critical platform to:

-Discuss and resolve pressing issues faced by both PMMD and the Finance Department (FD).

-Align and synchronize work processes, particularly in areas of overlapping responsibilities, such as grant activation, fund disbursement, and reporting mechanisms.

Meeting Highlights – 8 July 2025:

  • Time: 2:30 PM – 4:50 PM
  • Venue: RMC’s BM1
  • Chaired by: Myself

This session proved to be particularly challenging and complex, with numerous issues tabled for discussion. Notably:

  • Two key issues require separate follow-up meetings due to the involvement of multiple stakeholders and the need for cross-unit consensus before a decision can be made.
  • Several other matters, however, were successfully deliberated and resolved, Alhamdulillah.

Despite the hurdles, the collaborative spirit between PMMD and FD was evident, and all parties demonstrated a shared commitment to improving workflows and service delivery.

As we move forward, these meetings will be instrumental in fostering a more responsive, accountable, and integrated research management ecosystem at UTM. Regular debriefings will not only improve efficiency but also enhance transparency and mutual understanding across divisions.

Other tasks of the day:

  • Endorsing several End Reports (ER)
  • Completing the Examiners Report form for Qualifying Assessment to PhD (MJIIT), for Engineering Education research —> Refer image above.
  • Brief meeting with my SPACE FYP student – Pik.
  • Dealt with various RMC issues (as usual).

#20242025 Day 014

#Monday

RMC Beban Tugas Staf Sokongan (BTSS) Workshop

Today, for I am not sure how many times already, we conducted another BTSS workshop in RMC, from 9 am to 5 pm. The good thing is that we are almost there, which means we have practically finalized and adjusted the working hours of all RMC members to a more logical indication.

We are doing this to quantify and justify the working loads of our staff. The amount of tasks and responsibilities, as well as expectations given to us, versus the number of manpower that we have. InsyaAllah, we are doing our best to optimize and utilize all the resources we have, but there are still some areas that require human intervention to be executed.

#20242025 Day 002

New Challenge, New Responsibility

I hope to give the best I can for UTM and the Ummah. I seek everyone’s cooperation and assistance in my new role. May Allah ease the work and process.

Effective on the 23rd of April 2023, I was appointed as the new Deputy Director of the Research Management Centre (RMC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). I will be handling the Management and Monitoring of Projects portfolio.

It was very unfortunate that I can’t lead the Center for Engineering Education (CEE) anymore. However, I am still a CEE research fellow and will do my best as well to support and uplift Engineering Education to its peak.

Thanks to all CEE members and staff for all the support and help given during my tenure as UTM CEE Director for the past 2 years.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=793226755668438&id=100049433626434&mibextid=Nif5oz

Day 321 Task – My Research Management

I have various activities and tasks that I need to managed in all my research grants. There are things like payment for chemicals that my student purchase, adding supplementary documentations for claiming the ICCME2020 conference fee that I participated last month, managing to pay my research student allowances, appointment of my new graduate research assistant (GRA) student, payment of analysis fee carried out at Unit Perkhidmatan Makmal Universiti (UPMU) and few more.

I just need to ensure that I am managing it well. The money for research need to be utilized as best as we can for research purpose.

Read all my “1 Official Task Per Day Record Challenge for 2020” —> https://people.utm.my/zakiyamani/category/1-activity-1-day/