UK Menon

U K Menon is a lawyer-educator with four decades in education. He now specialises in the law and policies of education, with a broad interest in all areas of education, including hospitality education.

His initial hospitality exposure came through teaching at MARA Institute of Technology, where he created a legal environment course for the industry. In 1993, while heading Stamford College’s academic division, he observed that hospitality was a major enrolment area; the American Hotel and Lodging Association partnered with Stamford, and Menon received the Lamp of Knowledge award jointly with a colleague for his contributions.

Throughout his career, Menon has held positions including Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Wawasan Open University, Director of Studies and CEO at Stamford College Malaysia, and Associate Director of the Asia Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, teaching corporate and professional legal practice across Malaysia, Australia, and the United States.

In 1995, the University of Melbourne recognised him as an Honorary Visiting Scholar. More recently he designed higher education capacity-building programmes in Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania, developed courses on privacy and data protection laws, and co-founded the Data Science Association.

In 2019, the Ministry of Higher Education appointed him as a consultant to review and harmonise higher education laws. He currently leads Espact Education, a company he set up with senior academics from around the world to continue playing a role in education.