Educatio n bigwigs: Prof Morshidi (centre) attending the Asia-Europe Meeting of Ministers for Education (ASEM) in Kuala Lumpur.
KUALA LUMPUR: The imbalance in the flow of students between Asia and Europe must be addressed, according to the Higher Education Department.
Higher Education department director-general Prof Dr Morshidi Sirat said the existing scenario, in which more Asians went over, had created an “imbalanced mobility”.
“We need to find out why this is happening before coming up with an appropriate strategy,” he told reporters at the fourth Asia-Europe Meeting of Ministers for Education (ASEM) here yesterday.
The meeting is a biennial dialogue between education ministers and senior officers from 32 countries in Asia and Europe.
ASEM education secretariat director Dr Siegbert Wuttig said estimates put the number of Asian students going to Europe for long-term education at 15 times more than European students coming here.
“We want to see how to motivate people (Europeans) to go to Asia for studies.
“We suggest having short-term semesters, maybe two to three weeks, so that they can get a taste of life here,” said Dr Siegbert.
Conversely, research shows that short-term cultural and student exchange programmes were more popular with Europeans than Asians.
Prof Morshidi said strategies to encourage more Malaysians to take part in such cultural exchange programmes would be discussed.
“One of the reasons fewer students from Asia go to Europe is the high cost and lack of funding here compared to European Union countries.
“We also want Malaysians who study overseas in long-term degree programmes to get more cultural exposure while they are there.”
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