PUTRAJAYA, Sept 21 — The number of international students in Malaysia has risen by more than 100 per cent over eight years ago, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.
He said in 2007, there were 45,000 international students in Malaysia and the number had reached 106,000 so far, and expected to increase to 110,000 by the year-end.
“In this regard, I welcome the Higher Education Ministry’s efforts to increase the number of international students to 200,000 by 2020, who were expected to contribute RM15 billion to the economy,” he said at the 9th National Academic Awards (NAA), here, tonight.
The text of his speech was read out by Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.
Elaborating on the impact of international students on the country’s economy, Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said each international student was spending a total RM46,000 per year, including tuition fees.
Najib said for married students who came to Malaysia with their family, it was estimated that each family spent as much as RM88,000 per year.
He said the higher education sector was expanding and expected to reach RM33 billion this year, covering operating as well as development expenditure.
The prime minister said apart from attracting international students to Malaysia, the government had also established research universities to spur the country’s academic research.
At the same time, the government was committed to ensuring that all the five research universities, namely Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) would book a place in the top one per cent position, he said.
“On this premise, we can reduce the sending of Malaysian students abroad to further their studies for the PhD and save at least RM2 billion in monetary outflow for the 2007-2012 period alone,” he said.-- Bernama
