Weakening ringgit not affecting PSD scholars

PUTRAJAYA: Public Service Depart­ment scholars will not be burdened by the weakening ringgit, says Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.

He said the students were not affected because their government scholarships were in US dollars. It is now RM4.03 to US$1.

However, Idris said, the fall might affect those paying for their own overseas education or being funded by their parents.

On the other hand, the weak ringgit was bringing more foreign students to local universities, he said.

“Malaysian universities are at­­trac­ting foreign students because of the competitive cost of quality education,” he said.

He said there were 135,000 foreign students in the country and hoped that more would come here.

He was speaking to reporters after launching the inaugural Higher Education Week Malaysia 2015, a four-day showcase of education opportunities and activities, yesterday.

Idris later witnessed the signing of a memorandum of arrangement between the Malaysian Qualifi­cations Agency and the Alliance on Business Education and Scholarship for Tomorrow.

Both the accreditation agencies want to foster better cooperation and information exchange between themselves.