Many COVID-19 vaccine candidates were clinically tested in response to the coronavirus pandemic. This study aims to determine the acceptance rate of, main concerns about and knowledge of COVID-19 vaccination among the Malaysian population based on different sociodemographic characteristics during the early stages of vaccine arrival in Malaysia. A cross-sectional online survey was performed between January 25, 2021 and February 1, 2021 using descriptive statistics, Likert scale analysis, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression. These statistics assessed the correlation between sociodemographic characteristics, exposure to COVID-19 vaccine information, as well as the perceived risk of infection and acceptance towards COVID-19 vaccines. There exist significant differences across sociodemographic variables. More than half of the respondents (58.85%) voted safety as their primary concern. Moreover, a medium correlation exists between knowledge and acceptance, r = 0.444, N = 2051, p<0.01. The linear regression equation of acceptance predicted by knowledge was Acceptance = 2.873 + 0.981 (Knowledge). This study’s findings can help the government design the best way to execute COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Malaysia, for example, the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme. It also demonstrates that online questionnaires are appropriate for assessing health literacy skills and attitudes towards vaccination during infectious disease epidemics. It can also aid in the adaptation of medical communication tactics to better comprehend vaccination values.

Higher education institutions with significant numbers of young adults may become centres of acute outbreaks during a pandemic. Due to the large number of young adults, universities have the potential to become outbreak centres. The aim of this research is to examine the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of university students towards COVID-19 at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), in Nilai. A self-administered questionnaire with a sample size of 2061 Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) students was distributed to collect the data and analyzed using SPSS software. To identify the levels of KAP among USIM students, we used descriptive statistics based Likert scale questionnaire. Results show that the sample of students have excellent awareness (85 per cent) and good attitude (73.8 per cent) towards COVID-19. However, levels for practice is significantly lower (44.9%) than the other two attributes. This is most likely due to the unpreparedness to face this pandemic's crucial situation. In other words, it can be said that although students have a fairly good level of knowledge on the subject, there is still much room for improvement in attitude and practice.

The rise of the Islamic capital market in the emerging economy of Malaysia over the past few decades motivates us to investigate the impact of the Syariah compliant status on the level of exchange rate exposure. The Syariah compliant status implies that a company should use a minimal level of debt as capital to finance its operations. Given this, it is hypothesized that Syariah compliant firms should exhibit lower levels of exchange rate exposure than their counterparts, supported by the strong theoretical connection between interest rate and exchange rate. In terms of specification, previous efforts in pricing exchange risk failed to capture the true size of exposure due to the use of single time domain in traditional model. To cater the bias in estimation, this study intends to calculate multi-horizon exchange rate exposure based on maximal overlap discrete wavelet transformation to decompose single series into multiple time domains. The financial risk analysis involves 30 listed non-financial individual stocks in Malaysia having different Syariah compliant status from November 2013 until May 2018. As a result, the study finds no significant difference in currency exposure between Syariah compliant and non-Syariah compliant stocks. Secondly, it is found that the extent of currency exposure and the percentage of exposed firms exhibit non-homogenous trend across different time scales where large amount of exposure is concentrated at higher scale. From policy implications, the study suggests that Syariah compliant firms and non-Syariah compliant firms share the same exchange risk profile where exchange risk management routine is expected to be identical for both groups. Besides, the enhanced level of exposure at higher scale requires vigorous financial risk hedging strategies especially within widened investment interval.

This research intends to identify the factors that have contributed to the recent increase in youth bankruptcy in Malaysia. This research may also provide beneficial and theoretical evidence and information to society, such as the government, family, youth, and future researchers, considering that young people are the primary backbone for national development. Hence this research comes with two objectives: to identify the relationship between sociodemographic (education level and occupation) factors and to determine the relationship between usage of credit cards, materialism and medical expenses to the increase in the number of young people declaring bankruptcy. Sociodemographic information about the respondents who filed for bankruptcy was acquired from the Malaysia Department of Insolvency (MDI) in Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan branches. The questionnaire was constructed using primary data and distributed to 119 people who had filed for bankruptcy with the Malaysian Department of Insolvency (MDI). Multiple Linear Regression method is used to examine the relationship. Education, occupation, credit card usage, materialism, and medical expenses are the five independent variables used to determine youth bankruptcy. As a result, three out of five turn out to be significant in explaining youth bankruptcy which are education, credit card usage and medical expenses. A great deal of misconception has been practiced by many youths nowadays, seeing as they do not acknowledge how severe the problem is and what the causal effects will be, due to their inattention to financial management.

Affordable housing is a significant issue that has been a concern among Malaysians nowadays, especially in the middle-income group. The demand for housing has been increasing, and thus, the preferences of this group must be taken into consideration. The focus of this study is to identify the factors influencing house buyers in purchasing affordable housing among middle-income groups. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey distributed among school teachers in Malaysia. Two hundred twenty-five respondents returned the questionnaire, which was used for data analysis. Descriptive and statistical analysis was performed to analyze the data collected using Minitab software, Microsoft Excel, and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). It revealed that house prices, location, and structure of housing had a significant relationship with the purchase decision of affordable housing among the middle-income group. In contrast, the neighbourhood factor had an insignificant relationship. It is also found that middle-income groups are aware of Malaysia’s affordable housing scheme and have a chance to be exposed to the scheme. Thus, this research will help the developers in developing housing schemes based on consumer’s orientation for future demand in Malaysia.

Malaysia is expected to be an aged nation with more than 15% of the population that are over 60 years of age. It is projected to age by 2030, with a 15.3% old population. Cost of providing aged caregiving medicine and facilities is likewise demonstrated to follow similar pattern of an ageing population. This study found that the source to finance the long-term care cost among 276 elderlies in Selangor are mainly from the family with duration between 4 to 5 years. It can be concluded that retirement savings and pension funds are not sufficient to pay for the long-term care cost.

The study aims to look at macroeconomic variables’ impact on volatility of exchange rate in both short and long run. The relationship between real effective exchange rate volatility and macroeconomic variables such as gross domestic product deflator, total export in percentage of GDP, inflation rate, coefficient of inflation rate and lending interest rate have been analyzed with the help of statistical tool. This research is based on secondary data obtained from World Bank website, International Monetary Fund website and Statistical Department of Malaysia. The study uses a sample of 35 observations, starting from 1980 to 2014 annually. Unit root test is used to determine the stationarity of the variables. The existence of the stationary data will lead to a long run relationship of macroeconomic determinants, while the techniques of co-integration model are used to determine the long run relationship of some macroeconomic variables on the volatility of exchange rate. The error correction model is used to generate a short run model on this study by generating residual or error correction term. The findings revealed that the coefficient of the gross domestic product deflator, total export in percentage of GDP, and inflation rate are significant toward the volatility of real effective exchange rate in the long run. On the other hand, only the coefficient of inflation rate, and lending interest rate have significant relationship with the real effective exchange rate volatility in the short run.

As COVID-19 hits the world shockingly, most nations worldwide have agreed to put educational institutions temporarily close. However, education has not stopped, but to go fully online as schools and universities could provide remote education. In this case, teachers have been struggling to adapt to the new norm to stop disease transmission. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the impact of Online Teaching and Learning (OTL) on teachers during COVID-19. The questionnaire was distributed randomly online among 320 teachers in Malaysia. SPSS has been used to analyse the completed questionnaire to obtain descriptive and inferential statistics. Three variables that have been used in this study were effectiveness, challenges, and school reopening using Cronbach’s alpha, hypothesis testing, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. This study has shown that most teachers were affected by using online as a new method of teaching. A negative correlation between effectiveness and challenges has implied that increasing challenges would decrease online teaching effectiveness. Besides, many of the components show a significant difference in the variables in terms of socio-demographic profiles. The findings obtained would help the higher administration tackle challenges the teachers face and know the effectiveness of online teaching and learning.

Shared and outsourced services have been generally allowed by the regulator (Bank Negara Malaysia, BNM) for commercial expediency and enhanced competitiveness of takaful companies in Malaysia. The different departments usually have a system of transferring the costs to each function; however the reciprocal method is rarely chosen. This study aims to analyze some of the methods of cost allocation through linear equations which will allow a large number of departmental cost transfers on Microsoft Excel. The study shows some relevant findings towards takaful operators’ decision on which method to adopt. The findings illustrates how the excel solver efficiently simplifies the calculation of reciprocal method of allocation which are generally avoided due to its complex computations. Keywords: Linear equations, matrices, cost allocation, takaful operators

The emergence of COVID-19 has affected people worldwide from all angles, from the aspects of health, wealth, emotional and also human interactions. This study aimed to look at the attributes such as positive behaviour, awareness, preparedness and relationships among Malaysians during the implementation of movement control order (MCO), and the predictors of preparedness in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted online involving 317 respondents above the age of 18 years old. A self-administered questionnaire was developed in both Malay and English languages to assess the level of positive behaviour, awareness, preparedness and relationships, as well as their main source of information retrieval regarding COVID-19. Overall, the measured attributes in this study showed the highest level in behaviour (84.2%), followed by awareness (73.5%), preparedness (62.5%) and relationships (60.6%). Multiple regression on preparedness revealed that all variables (behaviour, awareness, and relationships) are significant (p<0.05), while gender is not. The top two sources of information the respondents refer to during the MCO are social and broadcast media. This marks the influence of social and broadcast media in an Industrial Revolution 4.0 era. Despite having good awareness and positive behaviour, the MCO may also have caused relationship issues as well as lower preparation levels in facing a deadly pandemic. It is suggested that future research to look into whether this would have any association with the mental health of Malaysians facing the pandemic. By understanding the attributes related to the MCO during the COVID-19 pandemic, it would help the government in the implementation of policies and procedures in any future pandemic.

This year's entrance to the month of Ramadan was distinctive from previous years. Whether fasting may present an elevated risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus due to dehydration while the coronavirus pandemic spreads its way through the world is a reasonable issue. During this COVID19 era, the misery fuels the thought about the public implications that emerged. Therefore, this study is undertaken in order to assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in the holy month of Ramadan among Muslims in Malaysia in terms of religious practices (fasting, prayers, charity) by using data collection via questionnaires. Online sampling of residents from Malaysia has been actively recruited via the authors' networks of residents and social media in Malaysia. To sum up, during this year's Ramadan in Malaysia, the COVID-19 pandemic does impose differences in religious practices (fasting, prayers, charity) compared to previous years.

Shared and outsourced services have been generally allowed by the regulator (Bank Negara Malaysia, BNM) for commercial expediency and enhanced competitiveness of takaful companies in Malaysia. While these objectives are acceptable, the requirement for takaful operators to be Shariah-compliant end to end is paramount. This study therefore aims to look at the processes involved to see whether there are any forms of Shariah non-compliance that needs to be mitigated. It uses qualitative approach through content analysis and interviews. In general, most of the processes are found to converge towards Shariah compliance. Findings from the study show that there are some Shariah non-compliance risks that could arise out of the shared or outsourced services. Firstly, there is a risk of non-compliance in the sharing of key persons who need to oversee both entities (takaful and insurance). Secondly, there could also be risks in the structure of promoting products through the same office or branches which could also lead to reputational risks. Several parameters are suggested to assist risk identification and mitigation processes in the shared or outsourced functions.

The e-learning is the only way available to ensure the Teaching and Learning can proceed during the outbreak period. However, this rarely used platform may induce several big challenges to both university’s management and students. Thus, in this study, we are keen to investigate the effect of socio-demographic on convenience as well as the effectiveness of elearning among students in USIM during COVID-19 using survey procedure. The questionnaire was distributed via email and WhatsApp group to the respondents. The descriptive statistics as well as the inferential statistics are used to interpret the responses received. Based on the results obtained, most of the students are convenient in using the elearning platform but moderately effective. There are also some significant differences found for the convenience except age and household size, as well as the effectiveness except gender and faculty.

Mental health conditions (MHC) have been found to have a negative effect on the outcome of respiratory diseases. MHC may increase readmissions and prolonged hospital stay for non-psychiatric hospitalisations. The study aimed to look at the depression, anxiety, and stress (DAS) levels of the Malaysian public in response to the pandemic and movement control order (MCO), using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21) questionnaire at different MCO stages. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a non-probability and snowballing sampling method involving 317 respondents above 18 years of age in Malaysia. Descriptive statistics and t-tests were used to analyse the data to identify the DAS levels during the early phase MCO compared to the recovery phase MCO. Results demonstrate the stress level to be higher during the early phase in comparison to the recovery phase; however, for anxiety and depression, these levels are identical in both phases. Additionally, ttest results exhibit similar findings, where significant differences (at 5%) are found for stress levels between the early and recovery phases. Meanwhile, for anxiety levels, a significant difference is only found at the 10% level of significance. Interestingly, for depression, no significant difference is found between the two phases. The decrease in stress levels can be explained by the adaptation of the public response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, to a certain extent, anxiety was still present and postulated due to apprehension and uncertainties about the COVID-19 pandemic progression with time. Future research should further assess the public response toward the latest COVID-19 pandemic dynamics, and reasons for the anxiety component can be established.