KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 —  Local universities will need to tighten the screening of potential foreign students to counter the influence of the global terror group Islamic State (IS), Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said today.

Idris said his ministry had a meeting this Monday with the Home Ministry, the police and the immigration department for discussions on curbing the IS threat.

"We do believe we have to be more stringent in taking in foreign students in universities to make sure these foreign activities are not going to be absorbed,” he said in an interview with radio channel BFM this morning.

Noting that IS or IS is "not even Islamic”, Idris said Putrajaya will ensure that lecturers and university students are told of the actual meaning of Islam and jihad.

"I am looking at it as a real issue, I look at it as a serious issue, we are meeting vice chancellors, we have to tell the students and lecturers what is meant by the right Islam.

"Islam has got to be taught in the right way, it has to be understood properly,” he added.

Idris said there are currently 122,000 foreign students in local universities here.

Acknowledging there were abuses of the student status in the past, Idris said the introduction of the use of the Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) has helped ensure foreigners who come here are genuine students.

He said foreign students who attend local universities and colleges do not cause much problem, but said there was a need to scrutinise those coming in for short-term courses or English lessons spanning three months.

He also said the government could easily monitor foreign students with the implementation of EMGS's student cards, with the document allowing the tracking of these students including the institution they were studying at and their country of origin.