BACKGROUND: The title of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is the third tier in the academic education. It is also becoming vital and crucial especially in the academician perspective. OBJECTIVE: This paper attempts to highlight and proposed a doctoral training needs assessment model for PhD Candidate in the Malaysian context. METHODS: Qualitative face to face in-depth interviews were conducted among the Doctoral Candidate (n = 19) at the Malaysian Public Universities, by focusing on those who pursue their study in the field of Science and Technology. A framework analysis was conducted by using ATLAS.ti software version 7. RESULTS: The researchers identified 10 major themes related to the training needs fundamental model for a PhD candidate; the training of (1) research methodology, (2) motivation, (3) financial, (4) religious knowledge, (5) health, (6) supervision, (7) sharing experience, (8) foreign language courses, (9) writing and publishing journal, and (10) spouse training. The implication of this study showed that all of those training model above are higly suggested by them especially before their are pursuing doctorate study. CONCLUSIONS: A proposed specific training needs assessment by the PhD candidate can be managed, practiced and implemented in consistently for developing a PhD holder to become well prepared and enable to finish ‘on-time’ in their study. Therefore, several recommendation also has been discussed in this research.

BACKGROUND: Employee training needs assessment (TNA) is a critical human resource management function for academicians in both public and private organizations. It also often considered the most important step among the stages of training. OBJECTIVE: This paper attempts to highlight an employee training needs assessment for PhD candidates among academicians in Malaysian public universities. METHODS: Qualitative face to face in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty one lecturers from seven public universities in Malaysia. All of them were furthering their PhD studies in the field of Social Science. A framework analysis was conducted by using the ATLAS.ti software version 7. RESULTS: The researchers identified eleven major themes related to an employee training needs assessment for a PhD candidate; the training of (1) research methodology, (2) supervision, (3) writing and publishing journals, (4) procedural management, (5) sharing experience, (6) financial, (7) motivation, (8) religious knowledge, (9) spouse training, (10) health, and (11) language courses.The implication of this study showed that few of the training aspects above were needed and suggested by them, especially before they pursued their doctorate studies. CONCLUSION: An employee training needs assessment for PhD candidates is an important strategy to support them becoming more confident and highly committed to succeed. This will boost their concern to adopt appropriate PhD training needed in order to minimize the duration of study delay. Several recommendation have also been discussed in this research.

The dialogue between religions is commanded by God in the Qur'an however not many Muslims are involved in it due to a number of factors, amongst them: it is a sensitive issue as it deals with relations between two different faith-based communities, language ability and skill is required in dialogue between the different religions and the awareness that it is important to undertake God's commands. This paper discusses the experience and role that has been played by a Muslim NGO via the approach of Common Word as stated in the Quran (3:64) in the context of Jordan. After 5 years of actively pursuing dialogue, they have achieved many noteworthy success, Amongst which is included their achievement in being die to get the support of 405 Muslim scholars and academics as well as 281 Christian scholar and academics around the world to sign their Common Word document. Apart from that, the Common Word activity receives coverage from around 900 media outlets through various formats including articles and newspapers. Thus indicating their global support and success.

This paper attempts to highlight the role of Islamic Propagation Society International (IPSI) in Interfaith Dialogue in Penang, Malaysia. Although the concept of interfaith dialogue is mentioned explicitly in the Holy Qur’an about 1400 years ago, it is still not commonly practiced today, partly because it needs the engagement from both sides, this regards for example the Muslim-Christian engagement. Due the wide spread of misconceptions and stereotypes against Islam in this era of globalization, Muslim scholars started to reactivate this divine effort. The contribution of late Ahmad Deedat who has inspired young Muslim to engage in this interfaith activity, as a result, the increasing number of Muslim personalities excel in this field such as Dr. Zakir Naik, Dr. Shabbir Ally, Hamza Tzortzis and Abdullah al-Andalusi to name a few. Surely, interfaith dialogue is one of the many effective ways to clear misconceptions about Islam and Muslims. This research is mainly based on observations and interviews at the Kapitan Keling mosque, Penang and IPSI headquarters in Penang. The research findings show that IPSI plays a very significant role in interfaith dialogue in Penang, and hence, the approach can be applied in any mosques in Malaysia which attracts many non-Muslim tourists such as Putra mosque and National mosque of Malaysia.