Malaysia recently saw the exchange of four Memorandums of Agreement (MoA), five Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) and one Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between its agencies and universities with those in Indonesia. These new partnerships further augment the long-standing relations between the two countries by expanding collaboration in higher education, particularly in the areas of health, science, and technology as well as research and innovation development. The cooperation between the two countries through this exchange is expected to result in an estimated research fund in the field of science and energy amounting to more than RM10 million. During the three-day working visit to Indonesia, Malaysia’s minister of High Education stated that Malaysia was “ready to accept more students from Indonesia to achieve its aim of producing talent for Indonesia to become a developed country”.
What does this mean for the UK sector?
Over the years, Malaysia and Indonesia have had a long history of friendly cooperation and knowledge sharing in the higher education sector. Indonesia is among the top ten largest sending country of international students to Malaysia and numbers continue to trend upward. In terms of research collaboration, researchers in Malaysia and Indonesia have cooperated on almost 10,000 publications between 2017-2021, making Indonesia second only to the UK as Malaysia’s top international collaborative research partner. Beyond the presence of high-ranking universities in Malaysia and the geographical proximity, a key unifying factor between Indonesia and Malaysia has been that they share a similar language, religion and culture. The UK, through its long-standing relationship with Malaysia, could benefit on many fronts. Malaysia’s raised standing in the development of Indonesia’s human capital could well lead to a larger stream of Indonesian students pursuing degrees at Malaysian public and private higher education institutions, including those that offer high quality UK Transnational Education programmes. Opportunities may also emerge for UK institutions to collaborate with Malaysian partners in areas that are tailored to meet the needs of Indonesian students from the technical and vocational streams. Here, UK qualifications delivered in partnership with local Malaysia institutions that provide articulation pathways for certificate and diploma holders from Indonesia may become increasingly relevant. As well, there is the potential for UK universities to work through partner institutions in Malaysia to tap into the available funding sources and develop tripartite research collaborations and joint publications between the UK, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Source:
https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2023/07/18/indonesia-and-malaysia-step-up-higher-education-sector-cooperation
