In an era of unprecedented global enrolment, it's ironic that universities are losing their hold on higher education as the Internet emerges as the dominant infrastructure for knowledge and information; both as a repository and a global platform for people to share their knowledge. Hence, the role of universities as knowledge transfer partners alone is simply not enough, and the current system must be completely overhauled. Furthermore, with the rising unemployment rate, universities must identify and develop new functions besides adapting to a whole new mode of operation to deliver the knowledge, the subject matter, and the course materials.

Such challenges are ready to be faced by the School of Biotechnology (SoBT), Manipal International University (MIU). Recently, the SoBT had the privilege to visit the National Institute of Biotechnology (NIBM) and Agro-Biotechnology Institute Malaysia (ABI). The NIBM is a consortium of 3 national biotechnology institutes; the Malaysian Institute of Pharmaceuticals & Nutraceuticals (IPHARM), Agro-Biotechnology Institute Malaysia (ABI), and Malaysia Genome Institute (MGI). The ABI mainly undertakes research, development and commercialization projects related to Agrobiotechnology in cooperation with various universities, research institutions and industry players.

With the fruitful visit to NIBM and ABI, the SoBT is looking forward to revitalising its curriculum and preparing the current and future students to face the challenges of Industrial Revolution 4.0 via research collaborations, Internship opportunities and the organisation of Joint workshops in Agrobiotechnology. Besides, the field visit to ABI also opened opportunities to organise International conferences in agrobiotechnology in future and to enroll more postgraduate students to SoBT and MIU.