Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) hosted the 4th Borneo Studies Network (BSN) Governing Council Meeting (GCM) on September 7 in which UBD currently holds the network’s Chairmanship and Secretariat.
The GCM was held in hybrid mode and chaired by UBD Vice-Chancellor Dr Hazri bin Haji Kifle.
It was attended by vice chancellors and rectors from BSN member universities.
The GCM gathered the members of the consortium to update and brainstorm the activities pertaining to BSN, including bilateral and multilateral cooperation among members in education, research and mobility activities and initiatives as well as to discuss BSN’s future plans.
The BSN Scientific Committee Meeting was also held in January this year, where several key scientific matters were agreed upon by Scientific Committee members including to strengthen the collaborative projects under the BSN five research clusters: Borneo biodiversity, Borneo cultural heritage and ethnic groups, Borneo renewable material science and energy, Borneo sustainable community transformation, and Borneo economy and banking.
All BSN research clusters have had overlapping interests on sustainability since the research clusters were formed in 2017.
BSN is a Borneo-based framework of research and studies organisations, established in 2013 consisting of 13 member institution. They are UBD, Universitas Balikpapan (UNIBA), Universitas Borneo Tarakan (UBT), Universitas Islam Kalimantan (UNISKA), Universitas Lambung Mangkurat (UNLAM), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universitas Mulawarman (UNMUL), Universitas Palangkaraya (UPR), Universitas Tanjungpura (UNTAN), STAKATN, Institute Mata Enggang (MEI) and the new BSN member Institut Teknologi Kalimantan (ITK).
Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. The island has three countries: Brunei and Malaysia in the North, and Indonesia in the South. Borneo island is also home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world.
To date, BSN has held activities including scientific committee meetings, workshops, conferences and student exchanges. The recent Borneo Youth Leadership Camp for undergraduates was held in July 2023 in UNMUL to promote and support innovative thinking and leadership skills among the BSN students.
Few other activities will follow in the next coming months involving research clusters as well as the Borneo Young Researcher Workshop mainly for postgraduate students.
The vision of the consortium is to promote and make distinctive contributions for Borneo island through education and research on Borneo studies with focus on people, economy and environment. This is done so by tapping into the expertise and strategic advantage of member universities and institutions with higher quality and quantity of groundbreaking research outputs in mind.
