• The efforts of internationalization and the building of reputation of HEIs will help generate income and foreign exchange savings through the enrolment of international students. Promotional activities for higher education are currently being intensified through the Malaysia Education Promotion Centre (MEPC) in Dubai, Beijing, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City. The existing promotional offices, especially in Dubai, are unable to cope with the demands of students. A critical evaluation in addition to identifying alternative measures to promote and market higher education in Malaysia.
• Currently, public HEIs have signed more than 1,000 MoUs with oversea universities. However, less than 50 percent of the MoUs are active. Hence, it is appropriate that public HEIs ensure that the MoUs are active and that the public will benefit from them. If necessary, inactive MoUs should be terminated based on the provision provided in the MoU.
• Malaysia has set up four (4) Research Chairs of Malay Studies overseas and the one in Malaysia is held by an international expert. The chairs are funded by the Government and the private sector for a specific frame. However, for the funding to be sustainable on a long term basis, a suitable alternative mechanism has to be identified.
• Currently, the government allows public HEIs to recruit international lecturers up to five (5) percent of the existing total number of lecturers. However, this effort is hindered by the unfavorable salary structure. To overcome this problem, the government has allowed public HEIs to recruit foreign lecturers based on contract for service whereby consideration for appointment is not dependent on the salary scheme of the public sector. In other words, public HEIs are allowed to offer a better salary package agreed upon by both parties. This being the case, public HEIs should initiate further efforts to attract internationally renowned university lecturers in tandem with the objective to achieve a 15 percent target of foreign lecturers in public HEIs by 2020.
• The quality of higher education is paramount for attracting foreign students to pursue their higher education in Malaysia. All efforts should be undertaken to minimize, if not eliminate, untoward incidents or cases that could tarnish the quality of higher education. This means that all programs offered by public HEIs should be closely monitored and stringent enforcement should be implemented on HEIs that do not abide by the stipulated rules. The programs offered to international students should be accredited by the LAN. HEIs that contravene the stipulated rules should be given a stern warning, and ordered to be closed down, if necessary.
• To attract more international students, the government has to take pre-emptive measures to settle the visa and immigration issues. Presently, the issues raised are related to the multiple entry visas issued to students at their respective home countries by the Malaysian Embassy, visa fees, issuance of visas during the duration of studies. Certain processes can be instituted to facilitate the admission of international students. Every effort should be taken to settle issues related to the issuance of visas so as to support the aspiration of turning Malaysia into an excellent international hub of higher education.
• The government also has to study additional measures to allow international students to work part-time for a stipulated duration during semester breaks or after they had completed their studies. Presently, international students are permitted to work not more than 20 hours per week. Further studies will be conducted to explore the viability of increasing the number of working hours for international students enrolled in certain programs. As most of the programs offered to the international students related to technical fields, accountancy, business, and ICT, and involve industrial training, the government encourages them to pursue industrial training with local companies as a form of local work experience. As a case in point, Singapore has embarked on giving incentives to outstanding graduates and researchers to work there and they are offered permanent resident status.
• Further efforts should be intensified to encourage more institutions, accreditation bodies from within and outside the countries to recognize the programs of study and the HEIs that conduct them. These efforts are important to facilitate the conferment of degreed to international students by local HEIs. The implementation of the MQF is seen to facilitate this process, especially if Malaysia becomes a member of internationally recognized bodies such as the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Qualification concerning Higher Education in the European Region 1997 and the Washington Accord for International Mutual Recognition of Engineers (engineering fields).
• The world market for education has a value of about USD2.2 trillion. In Malaysia, it is estimated that private HEIs contribute RM1.3 billion annually to the national economy, of which a large amount is attributed to revenue obtained from international students. Various countries have also taken the initiative to attract international students. In order to be competitive, the private sector and the GLCs in particular have to play a very significant role to bring distinguished universities to set up their branch campuses in Malaysia.
• Malaysia needs to emulate South Korea which currently has intensified internationalization efforts through various measures, such as allowing 30 percent of the courses at South Korean universities to be conducted in English. In this context, Malaysia has also intensified efforts at internationalization to become an excellent international hub pf higher education. These internationalization efforts can be seen in the setting up of branch campuses by various foreign universities, such as the University of Nottingham from the United Kingdom, and Monash University, Curtin University of Technology, and Swinburne University of Technology from Australia.
• As a result of bilateral relations between the Government of Malaysia and the Governments’ of the Middle East and African countries, higher education in Malaysia has been given recognition and many students form those countries have pursues their studies here. For instance, the Government of Saudi Arabia has sent their students to Malaysia under the King Abdullah Scholarship program. The steps taken by the Government of Saudi Arabia in selecting Malaysia as a choice of destination for its postgraduate students is indeed an honor for Malaysia. However, at the same time, this has brought about challenges to HEIs to fulfill and stisfy the needs of these students, especially in providing suitable accommodation and the relevant programs of study, however, the Government of Saudi Arabia has mandated that the PhD programs in which the students are enrolled, have a similar structure to those offered in the United States. This means that the program structure has to include comprehensive course work accompanied by research. As such, public HEIs have to make appropriate adjustments to cater to this requirement.
