TANJONG MALIM: The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) will continue to explore education cooperation with various countries, focusing on efforts to increase international student mobility to Malaysia.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said that based on the quality and ecosystem of higher education and the country’s stability, the target of 200,000 international students studying in Malaysia could be achieved in the next few years.
“Focus will also be given to the mobility of lecturers and researchers. We are also concentrating on exporting our education by offering courses and expertise abroad through the establishment of education consortiums,“ he told a press conference after launching the Malaysia-Uzbekistan Higher Education Forum at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) here today.
Also present were Uzbekistan’s Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation Kongratbay Sharipov and UPSI vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Md Amin Md Taff.
Zambry said Malaysia has been implementing the internationalisation of education agenda for several years to key destination countries.
Zambry said that cooperation in higher education with Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, focuses on fields such as science, technology, and languages.
Meanwhile, the inaugural forum, themed Uzbekistan-Malaysia: Opportunities and Initiatives for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Higher Education, represents a significant milestone in bilateral relations between the two countries.
Attended by vice-chancellors of local and private universities as well as 28 rectors from leading Uzbek universities, the forum also saw the signing of several memorandums of understanding (MoU), letters of intent (LoI) and letters of agreement (LoA) between higher education institutions from both countries.
It also witnessed the establishment of the Malaysia-Uzbekistan Higher Education Consortium (MUHEC), led by UPSI.
This consortium will serve as a strategic platform to promote academic mobility, collaborative research projects, and the sharing of best practices in higher education.
