Attracting foreign students to UKM
Every morning, Dafrizal, a PhD student at the School of Media and Communication Studies, is seen intently reading the local newspapers. No, he is not wasting his time. He is actually collecting data for his research on terrorism.
For Dafrizal, 35, who graduated with a masters degree two years ago from the same school, the decision to move on to a higher level was easy as he was offered a position as a graduate research assistant by his supervisor.
Like many other Indonesian students here in UKM, Dafrizal, found Malaysia to be friendly to foreign students. Moreover, he could relate with many of the things here; language, food, culture, etc.
Among all the 13 faculties and 14 institutes at UKM, Engineering has the most number of international students who are mainly from the Middle East and North African countries. Currently, 22% of post-graduate students are foreign students, mainly from Indonesia, and the Middle East.
In line with the Malaysian government’s aspirations to make Malaysia an educational hub, its doors have been opened wide to foreign students and UKM has its fair share of these students. It is now home to students from 35 countries with the largest number coming from Indonesia followed by Iran.
Currently just over 30 percent out of a total of 9,725 of its graduate students are foreign students (2,214). It is targeting to increase its graduate students to 15,000 by 2015 of which 40 percent will be foreign students.
UKM has set up a Centre for Postgraduate Management to manage its increasing intake of graduate students of which 40 percent will be foreign students by 2015. It is headed by Prof. Dato’ Laily bin Din as its Director.
It is a common sight to see foreign students “hanging” around the Centre on different errands ranging from academic to immigration requirements.
As Malaysia is a Muslim country the Middle Eastern and Indonesian students have not much of a problem to fit in with the environment here.
To ensure quality education, Dato’ Laily, said among the measures put in place include the scrutiny of the students to be enrolled in terms of their ability to follow their chosen courses. UKM is providing quality education and as part of the measures to ensure and maintain quality, international students are required to have a certain level of proficiency in English.
“They (foreign students) are also required to take research methodology to enhance their knowledge of research to prepare them for quality research”, said the director.
Dafrizal concurs with the director saying, “I am able to gain much more academic knowledge and insight through UKM, because it has more than one million academic resources consisting of collection of books, E-Books, print journals, E-journals and many others”.
Hapsaneh, an Iranian master’s student is in accord that UKM provides quality education. “Very good supervision. Quality is good”, said the Iranian. What makes the Iranian student life interesting in UKM is the friendliness and kindness of the staff and faculty members.
In line with the quality education drive, UKM PhD. students are also required to publish at least two articles before graduating while for the masters’ programme one published article surfices.
The meeting of different and multiple cultures is bound to produce problems. However, for Dato’ Dr Laily the challenge of dealing with students from different cultural backgrounds adds colours to his own special way of doing things.
“I have to deal and get to know their cultures. In my job I make myself open. We have to understand that the international students have their own problems coupled with the fact that some have their families here who needed to be cared for”, added the director.
Despite the cultural differences that exist between the international students and their host country, Dato’ Dr Laily is satisfied with the level of cooperation he gets whenever the centre organises its activities.
This ranges from educational to cultural and are mainly carried out to improve the students’ academic quality and to make the foreign students’ stay in UKM interesting and meaningful.
He agreed that at the beginning the international students do experience problem as they try to adapt to the situation here. “But with time they adapt very well to everything including their studies and interactions with the locals”, said Dato’ Laily.
In order to be close to and understand the students better, the Centre has also lined up a series of high tea events which had already started with the Indonesian students followed by students from Bangladesh.
To attract more international students, UKM had last year went on an aggressive promotional campaign in 22 countries in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education. That is not all. “UKM also provides adequate research facilities and financial assistance such as the zamalah to its graduate students”, said Prof. Dato’ Laily.
The Centre for Graduate Management also provides financial assistance to students who want to take part in international conferences and seminars. Graduate students who needed to go overseas and meet professors in their field of study can also get assistance.
The centre also organises international cultural nights and sports carnival like futsal in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education.
As a reflection of the importance attached to postgraduate education by the Malaysian government, UKM is hosting the International Conference for Postgraduate Education (ICPE) this November (2010). More than 500 postgraduate students and academic staff are expected to participate.
Prof Dato’ Laily said the event, of which he is the co-chairman, is supported by all the 20 public universities in the country. UKM News Portal
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Dr Ali Salman is post-doctoral fellow at the School of Media and Communications Studies, where he obtained his Ph D. He is from Ghana, married with one daughter.
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