As UTM is of of the top research universities in Malaysia, it is crucial that UTM staff, in particular lecturers, have a very good command in English.
However, not all lecturers are fluent in English and improvements are especially needed in terms of grammar and vocabulary. Although lecturers are exposed with English materials most of the time, not all are willing to take extra effort to improve their English skills. Some of them depend too much on the proofreaders to proofread their works. Problems arise when they write e-mail, especially to outsiders, and their e-mail is full of embarrassing grammatical errors that can be avoided if they have high English proficiency. MyLine system, developed by UTM is a good platform for staff to enhance their English skills but the system is limited for non academic staff only. Therefore my suggestion is for UTM to organize compulsory English courses that are targeted for lecturers (grammar, business writing skills, etc). This is also inline with the Prime Minister’s wish where he said that civil servants must have a strong mastery of English.
