KUALA LUMPUR: Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) received 12,850 applications in the first quarter of 2014 from international students interested to pursue tertiary education at private higher education institutions in Malaysia.
Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said of the total number, 11,336 applications were approved and this translated into 31 per cent of the targeted 36,000 new international students intake for this year.
“Malaysia remains a favourable education destination for international students. The ministry together with EMGS continue to enhance efforts, both in marketing and operations to attract more international students.
“Through EMGS, we aim to strengthen Malaysia’s position as a global education hub,” he said in a statement released by EMGS, here, yesterday.
EMGS is a non-profit company established in 2012 to serve as a one-stop centre tasked by the Education Ministry to market Malaysian education and manage student services with regard to operational activities, such as visa processing and renewals for all international students.
Idris said EMGS had used the Student Application and Registration System (STARS), which enabled better student application management and tracking.
He said the system also enabled the ministry to monitor the approval and rejection rate of individual private higher education institutions.
“Through this, we are able to identify private higher education institutions that habitually offer unqualified candidates or places to candidates with dubious applications.
“We plan to take action against such institutions and ultimately this effort will ensure that international students who want to study in Malaysia are not taken advantage of and that we get quality candidates.”
He said EMGS which started operation last year, had managed to curb the submission of irregular applications as statistics showed that only three per cent of the total applications received were not approved in 2013 compared to 28 per cent in 2012.
As of December last year, statistics from the Immigration Department indicate that there were 117,833 international stundents from 140 countries with active student passes in Malaysia. — Bernama