MALAYSIAN EDUCATION OFFICE OPENS IN MANKHOOL

By Muin Abdul Majid

DUBAI, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- The newly-relocated Malaysian education office in
Dubai was recently opened by Malaysia's Higher Education Ministry
secretary-general Dr Zulkefli A. Hassan.

It is now located adjacent to the Malaysian consulate-general in Mankhool.

Both had previously been operating from the Oud Metha area.

"Our office in Dubai will continue to be very important going forward as we
try to attract more quality students from overseas, including the Middle East,"
Dr Zulkefli said at the simple opening ceremony.

Present were Malaysian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Yahaya
Abdul Jabar, consul-general in Dubai Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin and Shushilil
Azam Shuib, the Dubai-based ministry official in charge of promoting Malaysian
education in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to Dr Zulkefli, steps were being taken to rationalise and maximise
the presence of education promotion offices as well as Malaysian Students
Departments abroad.

He also hinted at the possibility of opening up new education offices in the
future, including one to cover southern Africa, in an effort to woo more foreign
students to Malaysia.

"It's all part of our repositioning and rebranding exercice involving our
education promotion push overseas," he told Bernama.

Malaysian public and private institutions of higher education have taken in
over 80,000 foreign students, contributing billions of ringgit to the nation's
economy.

The ministry is targeting an intake of 150,000 foreign students into such
institutions by 2015.

Shushilil Azam had previously said it was likely that the target of having
35,000 students from the Middle East in Malaysian universities by the end of
2010 would be surpassed.
-- BERNAMA