BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

TWENTY-ONE Politeknik Brunei students yesterday left for a week-long field trip to Kuala Lumpur.

The Advanced Diploma students – who are all studying Information Science – will be visiting libraries, museums and higher education institutions to gain knowledge about electronic library cataloguing and loaning systems.

“Brunei is still lacking (when it comes to such) electronic library systems, while other countries are using the most available and advanced systems,” said the trip’s group leader, Nurul Bariah Maa’rof.

Before leaving at the Brunei International Airport, she said the students had organised the trip, and they planned to use what they learned from the visit to implement similar electronic library systems at Politeknik Brunei for their final-year project next year.

According to Nurul, the students would be bearing the costs of the trip, except for transportation in Malaysia which would be sponsored by one of their lecturers.

Three course lecturers will be accompanying the students throughout the week.

Nurul also said the trip was an opportunity for the students to experience a “student exchange” as Politeknik Brunei does not currently offer student exchange programmes.

“It’s basically that for us – we want to gain experience and knowledge, and also seek opportunities,” she said.

Politeknik Brunei began operating in January 2012.

The Brunei Times