Mobilising the Sustainable Development Goals …
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4.1 The Bicycle Project, the University of Nottingham,
Malaysia Campus
The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus is situated about 38 km from Kuala
Lumpur, in a quiet town in Semenyih, Selangor. It is the first UK campus in Malaysia,
and one of the first to open outside the UK. The Malaysia Campus was set up in 2000,
and moved to its current location in Semenyih in 2005. The total enrolment of students
in UNMC is at an estimate of 5000 people in 2016. It is considered a relatively new
and small campus, which in turn creates a rather intimate connection between the
campus community.
The campus mimics the attributes of the University Park Campus in the UK,
spanning about 50.6 hectares, with lush greeneries and man-made lake in front of
the iconic clock tower. The university has four faculties, which comprise of teaching
staff from the UK Campus, as well as competent international and local lecturers
as well. All students take part actively in co-curricular activities under the Student
Association (UNMC 2018). Many sustainable initiatives in UNMC is through bottom
up approach, from Bring Your Own Tupperware initiative, to getting more recycling
bins on campus.
As students become more environmentally cautious, so does the university. In
2015, a group of students gathered together to carry out the UNMC Bicycle Project.
Co-founded by Jasmin Irisha Jim Ilham and Malik Hisyam Zaihan, the UNMC
Bicycle Project aimed to provide an alternative mode of transportation via cultivating cycling culture, lowering the amount of campus carbon emission from motorised
vehicles, and encouraging a healthy lifestyle among the campus community. Demographically there are two initial reasons as to why the Project was carried out. The
local students were facing a parking problem on campus, as there were too many
students who drive, and lack of parking space to cater to the number of vehicles.
On the other hand, international students, mostly UK and EU students, were very
interested to rent bicycles—a service that the campus did not offer.
A team of students who primarily cycles to campus were put together, and in
collaboration with the Sustainability Research Network, conducted a campus wide
survey to gauge interest towards cycling. Based on the survey, 69% of respondents
expressed their interest in having a bicycle rental system on campus. As a result, a
proposal was drafted and presented to the Campus Services director, seeking support
to implement a small-scale bicycle rental system to run as a pilot program, initially
planned to be ran by students.
This also led to the conception of UNMC’s first ever Cycling Club, to provide a
platform for students to not only cycle together but champion for sustainable transportation. As the Bicycle Project had a timeframe towards the implementation of it,
the team was thinking in terms of long term planning and sustainability. Thus, the
Cycling Club was established to not only provide a common platform for interested
individuals to gather and form a community, but also to overlook the progress of the
Bicycle Project and the accountability of it.
125
4.1 The Bicycle Project, the University of Nottingham,
Malaysia Campus
The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus is situated about 38 km from Kuala
Lumpur, in a quiet town in Semenyih, Selangor. It is the first UK campus in Malaysia,
and one of the first to open outside the UK. The Malaysia Campus was set up in 2000,
and moved to its current location in Semenyih in 2005. The total enrolment of students
in UNMC is at an estimate of 5000 people in 2016. It is considered a relatively new
and small campus, which in turn creates a rather intimate connection between the
campus community.
The campus mimics the attributes of the University Park Campus in the UK,
spanning about 50.6 hectares, with lush greeneries and man-made lake in front of
the iconic clock tower. The university has four faculties, which comprise of teaching
staff from the UK Campus, as well as competent international and local lecturers
as well. All students take part actively in co-curricular activities under the Student
Association (UNMC 2018). Many sustainable initiatives in UNMC is through bottom
up approach, from Bring Your Own Tupperware initiative, to getting more recycling
bins on campus.
As students become more environmentally cautious, so does the university. In
2015, a group of students gathered together to carry out the UNMC Bicycle Project.
Co-founded by Jasmin Irisha Jim Ilham and Malik Hisyam Zaihan, the UNMC
Bicycle Project aimed to provide an alternative mode of transportation via cultivating cycling culture, lowering the amount of campus carbon emission from motorised
vehicles, and encouraging a healthy lifestyle among the campus community. Demographically there are two initial reasons as to why the Project was carried out. The
local students were facing a parking problem on campus, as there were too many
students who drive, and lack of parking space to cater to the number of vehicles.
On the other hand, international students, mostly UK and EU students, were very
interested to rent bicycles—a service that the campus did not offer.
A team of students who primarily cycles to campus were put together, and in
collaboration with the Sustainability Research Network, conducted a campus wide
survey to gauge interest towards cycling. Based on the survey, 69% of respondents
expressed their interest in having a bicycle rental system on campus. As a result, a
proposal was drafted and presented to the Campus Services director, seeking support
to implement a small-scale bicycle rental system to run as a pilot program, initially
planned to be ran by students.
This also led to the conception of UNMC’s first ever Cycling Club, to provide a
platform for students to not only cycle together but champion for sustainable transportation. As the Bicycle Project had a timeframe towards the implementation of it,
the team was thinking in terms of long term planning and sustainability. Thus, the
Cycling Club was established to not only provide a common platform for interested
individuals to gather and form a community, but also to overlook the progress of the
Bicycle Project and the accountability of it.