TAR UC’s Bachelor of Public Relations (Hons) Year 3 students posing with their Silver Award at the MPRA 2018 awards ceremony. Accompanying them are Ms Lim Siz Siz (leftmost), Programme Leader for the Bachelor of Public Relations (Hons), FCCI, and Ms Josephine Ng (rightmost), Lecturer, Department of Communication, FCCI.

TAR UC’s Bachelor of Public Relations (Hons) Year 3 students proved themselves to be a class of their own even in the professionals’ eyes after their Re:source “Do Right for What’s Left” campaign won a Silver Award in the Institution of Higher Learning – Students Award category at the Malaysia Public Relations Awards (‘MPRA’) 2018.

The Re:source campaign was carried out over two days on 5-6 January 2018 by the students to shed light on the increasing severity of sustainability issues in today’s modern world. With the support of industry partners such as Toyota Motors Malaysia, Prasarana Malaysia Berhad and Grab, amongst others, the event ended with a huge success.

But the students’ success story did not end there as they submitted their campaign to MPRA 2018, an annual awards ceremony that celebrates the best public relations campaigns produced by industry leaders and influential agencies across Malaysia.

During the awards ceremony held on 9 November 2018, Re:source was announced as the Silver Award winner, making TAR UC the only higher education institution to win an award at MPRA 2018.

“We submitted our campaign to see how it would fare in the eyes of the industry leaders. In the end it was a huge surprise for all of us after they announced us as the winners!” exclaimed Chong Yew Han, Re:source organising committee student representative.

“This achievement is concrete proof that hard work does pay off. Who would have thought that a bunch of students could pull off a campaign of such a scale and win one of the most prestigious awards in the industry!” he added.

Mr Chuan Tek Pheung, Programme Leader, Department of Communication, Faculty of Communication and Creative Industries (‘FCCI’), was delighted with the award. “This is TAR UC PR students' second Malaysian PR Award triumph, made sweeter by our being the sole education institution winner this year, and we will continue to combine experiential learning with real-world issues.” he said.

Ms Dearna Kee June Chen, Dean of FCCI, further added: “It is apt that Re:source was rewarded for its effective campaign to alert students, staff and visitors how our doings now cause issues that affect the whole world, proving that education enables both mental awareness and sustainable actions that can save our Earth for the future.”