BESUT, Dec 26 – The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) are targetting 200,000 international students to enter public and private universities by 2020 as they can contribute RM15.6 billion in revenue. Its minister, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said as of December, there were 113,752 international students in public and private universities of whom 32,495 took Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy.
“These international students are not problematic as most of them are sponsored by their countries of origin and come here with their families,” he told reporters after a ‘Ceria Kembali Ke Sekolah’ programme in the Besut parliamentary constituency here, Friday.
The programme involved 400 poor students from primary and secondary schools in the Besut district and jointly organised by the Besut Education Welfare Council (MKPB), the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN), the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQC), Taylors University and Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS).
Each student received a bag, school uniform, shoes and RM100 in the form of SSPN-I certificates from Idris, who is also Besut Member of Parliament. He denied allegations that Malaysia was a dumping ground for foreign students adding only a small number or 0.075 percent were involved in crime.
The establishment of EMGS two years ago led to tighter screening of foreign students with a majority of them coming here just for studies. International student visa applications to Malaysia can be made online or by their sponsors from Friday with fees starting from RM80,000.
