MELAKA: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) has made a name for itself helping its students overcome poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic.

       UTeM was placed 81 out of 769 universities worldwide in the recent Times Higher Education (THE) 2022 Global Impact Rankings in the No Poverty category.

       The University's vice chancellor Prof Ts Dr Massila Kamalrudin said the commitment and the strategic planning of UTeM to help its students mitigate financial difficulties during the height of the pandemic, had led to the achievement.

       "The achievement is very inspiring to us especially when we were able to demonstrate the impact and showcase the best practice in assisting our students.

       "The current social landscape is increasingly demanding particularly for students from poor family backgrounds to complete their tertiary education without being hampered by monetary hardships," she said on Friday (April 29).

       According to THE, its Global Impact Rankings assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

       The No Poverty category measures universities’ research on poverty and their support for poor students and citizens in the local community.

       The rankings cover 17 different categories and universities also receive and overall ranking based on their performance in the other categories.

       Some 1,524 institutions from 110 countries have participated across the rankings this year.