Pioneering educator Chan-Low Kam Yoke received an honorary doctorate from The University of Queensland (UQ) in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday (September 14).
Dr Chan is the Chief Executive Officer of Kuala Lumpur’s HELP University College which she founded with her husband 19 years ago.
The College opened with 60 students but now boasts more than 8000 students.
UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay AC said Dr Chan was presented with the degree for her outstanding contribution to education in Malaysia and internationally.
UQ, based in Brisbane in Australia, is Queensland’s oldest and largest university which consistently ranks as one of Australia’s top research and teaching and learning universities.
Dr Chan, the youngest of 13 children, grew up in Kuala Lumpur and had her early education at the Bukit Nenas Convent before studying at the University of Malaya.
Her motto of living a life of significance through education and training has driven the expansion of HELP which has taught students around the globe.
She has been active in charity through the HELP Trust Fund.
The last two charity events held in conjunction with UQ’s Faculty of Business, Economics and Law and School of Music raised RM239,000 ($82,000AUD) for many charity groups.
Dr Chan was presented with her degree at Kuala Lumpur graduation graduation celebration at the Hotel Nikko Ballroom.
More than 340 Malaysian students, mostly commerce, business management and engineering students, have graduated from UQ in the past year.
The ceremony was one of four held by UQ in south-east Asia this month so graduates could share their triumphs with friends and family.
Electrical engineering PhD student Wai Yie Leong, who created the Smart Microphone, Better Hearing System with her supervisor Dr John Homer also attended.
The invention, which can extract clear speech signals from many voices, won Ms Leong one of Queensland's top female scientific awards the Queensland’s Smart Women – Smart State postgraduate student award.
The Queensland Premier, Mr Peter Beattie, also congratulated Ms Leong.
"Wai Yie Long won the 2005 Smart Women postgraduate student award because she is passionate about inventing for the public good," Premier Beattie said.
"The award, sponsored by Queensland Treasury, recognises her development of the Better Hearing Aid, which improves the technology of conventional hearing aids.
"Queensland is a multicultural society that warmly welcomes students from Malaysia and elsewhere, and we are honoured that Wai Yie chose The University of Queensland for her postgraduate studies."
It previously won her a Trailblazer award, the annual innovation competition run by UQ’s main commercialisation arm, UniQuest.
UQ has nine agreements with Malaysian institutions to foster research and academic collaboration and student and staff exchanges.
HELP and UQ have shared undergraduate students for many years but have now agreed to expand the program to include postgraduate students.
UQ is a member of the Group of Eight, an elite group of universities which conducts 70 percent of all University research in Australia.
It is also one of only three Australian members of Universitas 21, a global network of comprehensive, research-intensive universities committed to quality through benchmarking against world-best practice.
UQ consistently receives maximum five star ratings for teaching, research and for positive graduate outcomes.
For more ceremony details visit http://www.uq.edu.au/graduations/?page=21124
Media: Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (0413 380 012, m.holland@uq.edu.au)
