The Higher Education Ministry (MOHE) will strengthen its monitoring of Malaysian students pursuing professional programmes overseas to prevent future issues involving accreditation and professional recognition.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Adam Adli Abd Halim said the initiative would involve closer coordination between Malaysia’s professional bodies, accreditation agencies and their overseas counterparts through existing cooperation networks.
He said the move aims to ensure that any issues affecting Malaysian graduates abroad can be identified and addressed more proactively, comprehensively and effectively.
“We have records of Malaysian students studying overseas, including the universities they are attending. These records allow us to monitor the accreditation status of their programmes and the quality of education they receive,” he said during Question Time in the Dewan Negara on Monday.
Adam Adli said the ministry would also ensure relevant information from overseas universities is regularly updated and shared with the appropriate professional bodies in Malaysia to avoid similar issues in the future.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Senator Norhasmimi Abdul Ghani, who asked whether the government planned to introduce a monitoring mechanism for all overseas professional programmes following the recent recognition issue involving the Doctor of Pharmacy programme at Alexandria University in Egypt.
Commenting on the case, Adam Adli said the issue involving four Malaysian pharmacy students stemmed from a technical matter following a change in the programme’s name at the university.
He stressed that the problem was not caused by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), as the programme itself remained recognised. Instead, the issue arose because Alexandria University had failed to notify the relevant professional body in Malaysia of the programme name change.
“The root of the issue was a technical change involving the programme’s name. From MQA’s perspective, the programme’s accreditation remained valid. The problem occurred because the university did not inform the Pharmacy Board Malaysia about the change,” he said.
