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President’s Message

Dear Members and Guests,

Welcome to the Oxford and Cambridge Society Malaysia’s website! We’re pleased that you have taken some time to connect with us and we hope to see you at one of our events or participating in one of our many projects. 

During the pandemic, the Society has been able to make a smooth transition to hybrid and online events. As of July 2021, we have over 50 videos on our YouTube channel with well over 100,000 views and nearly 2,000 subscribers. This has enabled us to connect with our members and the wider community and to contribute to important discourse in Malaysia. Online has the advantage of making speakers more readily available so we have been able to do run webinars with key figures likes Professor William James of Oxford University as well as personalities in Malaysia like Anwar Ibrahim, Charles Hay MVO, British High Commissioner to Malaysia, YB Khairy Jamaluddin, Professor Jomo and Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz. We have also run magazine style health, arts and cultural events as well as business and finance talks. We now have close to 500 followers on Instagram and Facebook. 

In 2020, when regulations allowed, we hosted in person events such as the hybrid Annual General Meeting 2020, dinner with Her Excellency Hilary Reilly, Irish Ambassador, and the CUMaS and OUMC pre departure dinners.  

Our outreach work has continued to be very important to us and we have increased our collaboration with the Cambridge University Malaysia Society (CUMaS) and Oxford University Malaysia Club (OUMC) with their student experiences shared on our YouTube channel. We also had a unique event with recruitment officers from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along with OUMC and CUMaS, giving encouragement and advice to young Malaysians considering applying to Oxford or Cambridge. We are proud to support CUMaS with the efforts to assist B40 students applying to Cambridge. 

We were able to continue with our key outreach events by moving them online. 

  • Oxbridge & KTJ Moot
  • Oxbridge & KTJ Debating Forum
  • Oxford and Cambridge Society Malaysia English Language Event
  • Sunway-Oxbridge Essay Competition

We have recently begun a new collaboration with the International Islamic University’s English Debate Club, CUMaS and OUMC on the Great National Discourse Series as well as with CUMaS on supporting B40 students applying to Cambridge. 

Our first Academic Exploration Competition was launched in 2020 and we awarded prizes and Honorable Mentions in three categories of STEM, Humanities and Computer Science to some of the 96 entries. Details of the 2021 competition are on our homepage. 

We were delighted to make the first award under our new Grants Scheme for members’ community or academic work. This award is for work on isolation of cellulolytic bacteria for sustainable rice straw management. 

In our 60 year history, we have evolved and grown in many ways. However, one aspect that has always been an ever present feature of our Society has been the Annual Boat Race Ball. We hope that we will all once again be able to meet in person and be able to celebrate our Diamond anniversary in typical Oxbridge style!  

Until then, we hope to see you online in our webinars, in views on our YouTube channel, or in collaboration with our team on one of our worthwhile projects. 

Thank you to the many organisations that partner with us. Events are so much more effective because of our key collaboration with Sunway Educational Group, Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar, MABECS, The Institute of Engineering and Technology, Science Bridge Academy, Aeste, Teach for Malaysia, Closing the Gap, The International Islamic University, CUMaS and OUMC.

Finally, thank you to all the Exco team of 2021-22! Each member of our team brings something different, special and utterly indispensable and I am truly thankful to this amazing group of people for their energy and commitment to making this Society a success for our members and our wider Malaysian community. 

We are always keen to reach out to alumni and would love to hear your ideas or comments for better engagement and interaction – please do email me at [email protected]

I hope you all remain healthy and active! Keep developing your neuroplasticity!

See you soon! 

Emma Davidson

President 

July 2021