KUALA LUMPUR: For the first time ever 440 students from China arrived to be admitted to the Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM).
This is believed to be the largest foreign student intake to a university in Malaysia.
The students arrived on Tuesday and yesterday to start their degree programmes from next week at the campus located near Putrajaya.
Xiamen University Malaysia is the first higher education institution in Malaysia which has taken such a large batch of students from China. XMUM is the first overseas campus fully established by a renowned Chinese university with a campus of her own.
XMUM president Wang Ruifang praised the Malaysian Government for the speed with which the student visas were processed.
“During the student visa application and arrival process, XMUM received good cooperation from Education Malaysia Global Service (EMGS), Immigration Department and the Consulate-General of Malaysia, Guangzhou. We also got good support from Airport Management Centre (AMC) KLIA and Malaysia-China Business Council (MCBC) headed by Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to China,” he said.
With this batch of 440 Chinese students and 220 incoming Malaysian students, the student number of XMUM will increase from 700 in August 2016 to 1,350 in September 2016.
This is higher than the original target of 500 students set by the university for this year.
Wang said XMUM would focus on recruiting international students from neighbouring countries and had targeted to recruit 100 international students next year from countries other than China.
In January, XMUM offered seven bachelor’s degree programmes, i.e. New Energy Science and Engineering, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese Studies, Journalism, Accounting, Finance and International Business.
In April, two foundation programmes were added while this month, five additional bachelor’s degree programmes – Marine Biotechnology, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, Software Engineering, Digital Media Technology – were offered.
Another bachelor’s degree programme, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, will be offered in January 2017.
（Source: The Star, 22 September 2016)
