Strategies in place to achieve international students target ahead of time

Higher Education Ministry’s target of 200,000 international students at universities in the country by 2020 may be achieved earlier with recent strategies put in place by Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS).

EMGS chief executive officer Professor Datuk Dr Rujhan Mustafa said the one-stop centre for international student services will work together with education institutions, foreign missions, various ministries (Higher Education, Human Resource and Home Affairs), Department of Immigration, Royal Malaysia Police, Malaysian Qualifications Agency and other related agencies to raise the nation’s credibility and profile as the preferred education destination.

“The total enrolment target set for 2017 was 170,000. We managed to close the year with 170,068. We are rising up the value chain — in terms of level of studies, 64 per cent of international students in public universities are enrolled in postgraduate studies and at private institutions, 56 per cent are at degree and postgraduate levels,” he said.

At a town hall session with heads of marketing from public and private higher education institutions in January, EMGS shared statistics, which defined trends, and data useful for setting targets and strategies for the year.

At a joint Press conference with the Immigration Department held at EMGS’ operations centre in Kuala Lumpur, Rujhan said: “For 2018, we are expanding our marketing activities to include roadshows and G2G (government-to-government) initiatives. We recently secured 500 scholarships from Maldives. We are intensifying initiatives in China and Indonesia.”

EMGS is also targeting to increase the number of students — particularly from European countries — enrolled in mobility programmes.

EMGS, in collaboration with the Immigration Department’s visa, pass and permit division, achieved a new record of seven working days for the processing of an application for student’s pass in 2017.

“The service delivery for Visa Approval Letters (VAL) in our Client Charter is 14 working days. In 2016, the average was 19 days.

“We introduced the Student Application and Registration System (STARS) in 2013 and we continue to enhance both features and integration towards better transparency, data security and confidentiality. The application process is almost fully digital.

“The system is integrated with the Immigration Department and the police has access to it. We have access to the database of examination boards of certain foreign countries which allows us to verify examination certificates submitted by students.”

Visa, pass and permit division director Mohd Fardhi Ahmad said that the implementation of eVAL in October 2017 is a technology enhancement. “Students can download the VAL the same day we issue and deposit it in STARS, saving three to six weeks delivery time to post or courier the hard copy of the document to students in their home country.”

Another improvement is the eVISA introduced to students from 10 countries in August 2017. Students from China, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Serbia and