Number of Education Malaysia offices overseas to be halved in rationalisation exercise

KUALA LUMPUR: Five out of 12 Education Malaysia (EM) offices overseas will be shut down for not contributing to an increase in international students, research grants or revenue to Malaysia, says Datuk Mansor Othman.

The Deputy Higher Education Minister said that the Public Service Department (JPA) in a letter dated May 16,2019, said it would conduct a rationalisation exercise on overseas Malaysian government offices and agencies, including EM.

Mansor added that the EM offices involved were in Chicago, Los Angeles, New Zealand, Ho Chi Minh City and Perth.

"At the moment, the implementation of rationalisation ... is being scrutinized and refined thoroughly at the central agency level," he told Dr Maszlee Malik (PH-Simpang Renggam) during Question Time.

Maszlee had asked the Higher Education Ministry to state the status of the rationalisation process of EM offices overseas.

Mansor explained that to further scrutinise the rationalisation process submitted by JPA, several engagement sessions and discussions had been conducted with relevant stakeholders with the participation of representatives from JPA and Wisma Putra.

The outcome, he added, was a rationalisation proposal submitted to JPA and tabled to a steering committee on Jan 16, this year.

"The committee then proposed that the rationalisation of EM offices should be done inclusively with the rationalisation of government representative offices overseas," he said.

Asked to explain the ministry's plans to attract international students to the country's higher learning institutions, Mansor said promotional initiatives had been done together with private and public higher learning institutions.