SEPANG - Public universities (UA) are encouraged to become providers of short-term courses to support the lifelong learning (LPH) agenda, in addition to being able to increase the income of their respective institutions. The Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Diraja Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said that the global demand for short-term courses is indeed waiting, and even the world's leading universities such as Harvard University are actively offering them. He said, this short-term course offering can also be run jointly between UA and other ministries according to their respective niches. "Now, cross-field, cross-specialty and cross-ministerial collaboration needs to be done in order to be able to produce efficient collaboration. "In addition, this short-term course can also be offered to international students and this effort is certainly able to attract foreign students to continue their studies in Malaysia and further make this country an international education hub," he said. He said this during a meeting with the top management of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) in conjunction with a visit to MQA Landmarks. Also present were the Deputy Secretary General (Policy) of the Ministry of Higher Education (KPT), Datuk Dr Megat Sany Megat Ahmad Supian; Deputy Secretary General (Management and Development) KPT, Mohamad Azhan Md Amir; Director General of Higher Education, Prof Dr Azlinda Azman and Chief Executive Officer of MQA, Prof Datuk Dr Mohammad Shatar Sabran. At the meeting, Zambry had the opportunity to listen to a briefing from MQA's top management regarding the agency's role, initiatives and challenges in ensuring the quality of the country's higher education continues to be on the right track. Meanwhile, Mohammad Shatar said, UA is also encouraged to become an Assessment Center for the Accreditation of Learning Based on Prior Experience (APEL). He said, the initiative is to give opportunities to people who do not have conventional qualifications to continue their desired studies in their respective fields. "Until now, there are three types of APEL introduced by MQA, namely APEL.A for access to higher education institutions, APEL.C for credit transfer and APEL.Q for direct awarding based on the applicant's experience," he said.   Source from:

Date of Input: 20/12/2023 | Updated: 25/01/2024 | aidawati