BEIJING, Sept 9 — Malaysia and China are to sign a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on higher education degree soon as a catalyst to increase student-exchange between both countries.
Malaysia’s Ambassador to China Datuk Iskandar Sarudin told Bernama during a special interview that the agreement was being finalised.
“With university degrees from China recognized, it will provide Malaysian students more options for courses or fields of study, especially in nuclear science, aero space engineering and advance technology. On the other hand, it will also attract more Chinese students to Malaysia.
“Now we have 150 sponsored students studying Mandarin at the Beijing University of Foreign Studies, but Chinese universities are also proficient in other fields like nuclear science, automotive and aerospace engineering, including some of the modern technology such as high speed trains,” he said.
Iskandar was elaborating the government’s effort to attract more Chinese students to Malaysia, when commenting on a survey that showed a decline in the number of Chinese students studying in Malaysia, beginning this year.
He added that the Higher Education ministers of both countries had recently discussed a proposal for Chinese universities to set up campuses in Malaysia and that the matter was in the follow up stage between the two ministries.
Iskandar said, in fact some Malaysian private universities, like Limkokwing University of Creative Technology had opened its branch campus in China and also introduced twinning programmes with local universities.
He said Chinese Universities were planning to go global while Malaysia had already opened its higher education sectors to the world, enabling many universities to set up campuses.
Meanwhile, Iskandar also disclosed that more Malaysian agriculture products, especially fruits like durian, would be gaining access to Chinese markets soon.
He said officials from the Agriculture ministry of China had visited Malaysia recently to conduct studies on agricultural products in Malaysia and they are expected to come out with a report soon.
Once Malaysian agricultural products gained entry into the Chinese market, there would be a big potential for our agriculture products, he said. — Bernama
