More Australian Students to be Expected in Malaysia

(photo courtesy: nst.com.my)

During a two-day visit to Johor Bahru, the Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia, Rod Smith, expressed the Australian government’s wishes of pushing more of its students to pursue their studies in both public and private Malaysian universities. Currently, Smith noted, there were a higher number of Malaysian students in Australia, and in order to balance the number out, the Australian government would be working towards this initiative.

The New Colombo Plan followed the intention of such a purpose. Introduced two years go to a very good response, “150 students from Australia have been given scholarships to study in Malaysia for the first year, and 270 students in the second year,” recalled Smith. He hopes that the next few years would see a further increase in these numbers as well, with the Australian government having assigned a $150 million budget for the next four years of the New Colombo Plan.

The majority of these students, said Smith, were placed in Universiti Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, as well as various other private universities in the country.

A greater number of Australian students would further contribute to Malaysia’s student diversity, the country being a hotbed for international students going on a decade now, with numbers increasing annually with no indication of wavering.