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Africa Has the Potential to Become a 'Hole' for International Students

 
 

Institutions of higher education (HEIs) in this country are advised to conduct aggressive promotions to penetrate the higher education market in African countries.

Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), Prof. Datuk Dr. Mohammad Shatar Sabran said, this is because by 2050 Africa will have one of the highest populations in the world with 40 percent of them consisting of young people under 20 years of age.

In fact, according to him, the population trend on the continent is now heading in that direction.

He said the demographic expectations were shared by the Director of the African Research Institute, Edward Paice, when he delivered the keynote speech at the UK ENIC 2022 (UKENIC22) Conference in London a few days ago.

"In this context, MQA has held initial communication with The African Qualifications Verification Network (AQVN) which oversees 30 countries in Africa during a meeting with the Chairman of AQVN, Mirriam MA Chiyaba who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Zambia Qualifications Authority. 

"The cooperation of all concerned parties is highly expected to make this agenda a success and it is necessary to move quickly before other countries take this golden opportunity," he said in a statement today.

Mohammad Shatar was also a panel member in the UKENIC22 program held at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London.

Also present, UNESCO representative, Prof. Anne Anderson and Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Quality Assurance) MQA, Prof. Ir. Dr. Khairul Salleh Mohamed Sahari.

With the theme Shifting Balance, Changing Models, the convention brought together higher education accreditation bodies and featured a variety of different topics presented through panels, workshops and presentations.

Commenting further, Mohammad Shatar said, in general, young people in Africa are very thirsty for education.

Therefore, he said, HEIs in Malaysia need to promote as much as possible starting now in order to be able to build a reputation among African countries that Malaysian higher education is among the best in the world.

He said, with good basic facilities, reasonable cost of living, peaceful conditions and safety factors, it is hoped that in the future students from Africa will choose Malaysia as their main choice to continue their studies.

"If we succeed in penetrating the African market, this effort will help to fulfill the desire of the Minister of Higher Education, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin to make Malaysia a talent and knowledge hub or a universal knowledge center," he said.

 

 

Source from

Date of Input: 29/03/2023 | Updated: 27/04/2023 | aidawati

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