SEGi University’s lecturers and students won Best Paper Awards at the 6th ABRA International Conference on Quality of Life held from 21 to 22 November 2022 at Double Tree by Hilton Putrajaya Lakeside, Putrajaya, Malaysia.
A PhD student at the Faculty of Education, Languages, Psychology and Music (FoELPM), Xiaoyu Hu, and her supervisor, Prof Gurnam Kaur Sidhu and co-author, Xin Lu from the School of Music, Shanxi University, China, managed to win the 1st Runners Up for the Best Paper Award.
They received a cash reward of RM 2,500 and a free registration fee worth RM1,300 for the next conference. They presented their empirical paper entitled “Exploring Positive Psychology Factors in the Quality of EFL Classroom Life: A Case Study.” Prof. Dr. Gurnam, the co-author who conceptualised the winning paper, highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic affected many people’s lives in one way or another. Therefore, with the global paradigm shift towards positive psychology, educators must embrace the affective factors in their 21st-century classrooms as these factors focus on individual and societal well-being.
Another big winner of three (3) Best Paper Awards at the conference was Dr. Chong Kim Mee, a lecturer from the Graduate School of Business. Her team won the Special Mention Best Paper Award and Top 5, and Top 6 of the Best Paper Awards. Her team consists of FoELPM, SEGi lecturer Prof Geetha Subramaniam, and researchers from various universities in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and others.
Dr. Chong also was the Best paper award receiver from the 10th Asia-Pacific International Conference on E-B Studies organised in The Magellan Sutera Resort, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, dated 7 and 8 September 2022. At this conference, she and her team also won three best papers awards.
Dr. Chong believes that with her team effort, the novelty of the research will indirectly and directly impact and improve the quality of life among the countries in Southeast Asia.
“With the focus on current issues affecting the communities and sustainable development goals, SDGs emphasised by United Nations and various ESG implementation. We need to act fast and play our roles as academicians and researchers. We, as academicians, need to emphasise idea generation and practicable suggestions to the policymakers and societies”, said Dr. Chong.
As a programme leader, she also believes that industry and academic practice need connections and collaboration to make things realistic and achievable. The ideas of her papers on staycation, smart cities, and online teaching perspectives helped her stand above the rest with the current issues she observed and discovered. As the saying goes, “Great discoveries are made accidentally less often than the populace likes to think” she will continue to contribute to and go to more international conferences to present her ideas while exchanging opinions with other field experts.
“Last but not least, we would like to thank the University for granting us the opportunity to attend the conference and publish the paper together with researchers from local and international universities,” Dr. Chong expressed.
Dr. Chong stressed that success is just around the corner for all when you are on a learning journey. In life, she embraces what Bill Gates said, “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
Moving forward, she hopes to inspire the younger generation to realise their potential towards sustainable development for a better future in our world.