FACT-FINDING: Saeeda (third left) leads the Omani delegation on a tour of the campus.
MIRI: Oman is keen to send more students to Malaysia, particularly to foreign universities including Curtin University Sarawak.
Oman consular advisor to the Higher Education Minister Saeeda Abdullah Al Subhi said the Omani Ministry of Higher Education is looking to place up to 1,500 undergraduates in quality and affordable tertiary institutions in selected countries.
In Malaysia, she said they hoped to place up to 90 more students.
Presently there are about 500 Omani students in public and private universities nationwide.
“We want to establish direct contact with the universities to ease the process of placing our students later,” she said, adding that her delegation was keen to learn about Curtin Sarawak’s academic programmes, fees structure, enrolment procedures and campus facilities, as well as life in Miri and local immigration procedures.
Saeeda said this during her visit to Curtin Sarawak recently, accompanied by two other officials – Foreign Scholarships Department head Musalam Taman Al Amri and Sponsored Student Affairs Department first researcher Ali Salim Al Farsi.
They also took the opportunity to meet with Omani students currently enrolled in various engineering, business, and media, culture and communication programmes.
Curtin Sarawak currently has over 3,000 students from over 40 countries at its campus in Senadin, which opened in 2002, and hopes to increase the number to 5,000, including a substantially larger number of international students, in the next five years.