KUALA LUMPUR: Universities should build partnerships with institutions, cities, and countries to turn knowledge into practical responses to shared challenges, including climate change, the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah, said.

He said universities needed to bring together different disciplines and perspectives as the effects of climate change and technological transformation extended beyond national borders.

"If our challenges are shared in this way, then surely our knowledge must be shared as well. Our universities must therefore look outward, building partnerships across institutions, cities and nations.

"They must strive to become spaces where different disciplines meet and enrich each other, where diverse perspectives can be heard and appreciated, and where knowledge is consolidated in the service of our global society," Sultan Nazrin said when launching the book Univer-Cities Volume V: Combatting Existential Climate Change at Universiti Malaya (UM) here today.