EMGS to cover public varsities

EDUCATION Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) will extend to public tertiary institutions from April 1 onwards.

Set up by the Education Ministry in 2013, the EMGS initially served as a one-stop centre for foreign student enrolment to private higher education institutions.

It will also handle foreign student applications to language centres by March 1.

Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh told Bernama that the move would help monitor international students here more effectively.

“There have been a few problems with international students at language centres, where they only have classes for nine hours a week.

“Some of these students have been taking this opportunity to do ‘other work’,” he said when officiating the Education Malaysia International Development & Marketing Convention in Putrajaya last week.

As of Dec 31 last year, there are 135,502 international students from 160 nations enrolled in Malaysian tertiary institutions and international schools.

Idris said that foreign student enrolment in private tertiary institutions grew by 30% in 2014, to 74,996 students.”

“There are 32,842 international students enrolled in public higher education institutions,” he said, adding that almost a quarter of all foreign students are enrolled in postgraduate programmes.

Meanwhile, EMGS chief executive officer Mohd Yazid Abdul Hamid said the company had implemented a number of measures too, such as setting up an Immigration Office at its centre, to speed up its services.

The time taken to endorse student passes has been reduced from 18 to eight working days, and medical screening reports by panel clinics are submitted within three working days instead of eight.

“With the digital application and processing system, we have created a strong analytics dashboard - a significant business intelligence tool which we share with the industry,” he said.