MONASH

Sunday February 6, 2011

Global offerings

By RICHARD LIM
educate@thestar.com.my

The heads of foreign branch campuses share their account of Malaysia’s pull factors as an education hub.

BY any measure, the University of Southampton’s recent move to establish a Malaysian campus was epoch-defining.

Taking two years to complete, the seemingly endless process of due diligence – on both sides – was finally concluded with the varsity agreeing to set up shop at the Educity@Iskandar, the education hub of Johor’s Iskandar Development Region.

Prof Nutbeam (right) discusses the Educity@Iskandar concept with (from left) Mohamed Khaled, Iskandar Investment Bhd president and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Syed Mohamed Syed Ibrahim, British High Commissioner Simon Featherstone and Education Development at Iskandar Investment Bhd CEO Khairil Anwar Ahmad.

Named the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus (USMC), the new branch campus would offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses in electrical, mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Malaysia’s sixth foreign branch campus, USMC joins a list which includes Monash University Malaysia Campus; the University of Nottingham Malaysia; Curtin University Sarawak; Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak and the Newcastle University of Medicine Malaysia.

Some of the universities are placed in the top 100 of the Times Higher Education and the QS World University Rankings, boosting Malaysia’s attraction as an ideal study destination.

The presence of foreign branch campuses in Malaysia could spur research in scientific fields.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said recently that more deals with renowned universities were in the works and a consistent annual growth of 13.5% - from Malaysia’s foreign student population of 86,000 – was needed for the ministry to hit the 150,000 international student target by 2015.

Although Government support is always welcome, it is by no means the primary catalyst that attracts foreign universities and a good question would simply be: Why Malaysia?

Taking up the issue, Higher Education deputy director-general (private higher education institutions) Prof Datin Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir said that the seldom-acknowledgedreality was that Malaysia met most of the requirements of an education hub .

Noting Malaysia’s equidistance between Europe and the United States, Prof Siti Hamisah said that the nation was strategically placed to cater to the global community.

Prof Siti Hamisah says Malaysia is regarded highly by international students as an education hub

Malaysia’s Islamic heritage was an added draw, making the nation a popular haunt for Middle Eastern students who have little difficulty settling.

And although the mastery of English is a contentious issue for some locals, Prof Siti Hamisah pointed out that many international students held Malaysia in high regard.

“Private providers use English extensively and this goes down well with foreign students,” she said.

“Additionally, many urban Malaysians speak and understand English and many foreign students come specifically to learn the language.”

Laureate Malaysia chief executive officer Graham Doxey confirmed this.

“The standard of English in Malaysia is much better than that of many other countries and it matters to Laureate.

“The cost effectiveness of operating in Malaysia when compared to Singapore or Hong Kong, where Laureate’s old Asia headquarters was based, is obvious.

Curtin University

“At the end of the day, there were few reasons as to why we should not come to Malaysia and we are very happy with the way things have worked out so far,” Doxey added.

The bedrock of trust

It must be noted that Laureate had long desired an Asian presence which materialised with their takeover of the Inti Education Group, and for others, the process could have been more complicated.

And at times, the availability of a right local partner is of paramount importance.

Established in 1998, Monash University was Malaysia’s first foreign branch campus.

A number of pro vice-chancellors testify to this and Monash’s Prof Robin Pollard and Curtin’s Prof Ian Kerr are among them.

Pointing out that Monash was the first foreign branch campus in Malaysia – since 1998 – Prof Pollard said that the move was evolutionary in nature.

“Monash’s history with Malaysian students goes all the way back to the Colombo Plan where Malaysian students were sponsored to study at Victoria, Australia,” he said.

“The goodwill and strong recognition of Malaysia continued when the varsity fostered a decade-long relationship with the Sunway Group in the 90s before being invited by the Malaysian Government to set up a campus.

“With the backing of a strong local partner, it was only natural to set up the Malaysian campus.”

Prof Pollard added that having the right partner was crucial in any move as the nature of doing business in Malaysia had to be understood.

Prof Kerr confirmed that Curtin received a similar invitation in 1999 – from the Sarawak state government – to set up a branch campus in Miri.

Already harbouring international ambitions, the stimulus package on the table – an offer of land and buildings – was simply too good to pass up.

Prof Kerr says that Curtin’s Malaysian branch campus stands out for its competitive pricing

And in the advent where a credible local partner isn’t enough, the presence of other bigger institutions, or familiar faces, could just seal the deal.

This was certainly the case for USMC before they committed to the Educity concept.

Its vice-chancellor Prof Don Nutbeam said that it needed reassurances as the varsity wanted to ensure that any international foray would not harm a reputation which took decades to build.

And this was particularly important as the move to Iskandar was USMC’s first move abroad.

“It was very assuring to note that Newcastle – another Russell Group university – had already committed to Iskandar,” he said.

“We wanted to have good company at the Educity and we are very happy we got that.”

The Russell Group is a collaboration of 20 of Britain’s leading universities and 18 of its 20 members are in the top 20, in terms of research funding in Britain.

Prof Nutbeam added that the varsity had also secured the option to expand should the move take off.

Apart from engineering, USMC is also well known in the health sciences and creative industries.

Set to open in September 2012, the university is targeting an initial batch of 60 students.

Its campus will be established as part of the Educity’s multi-university enterprise complex, which is shared among tenants.

If all goes well, USMC will expand to its own campus by 2019.

No matter how good a deal, nothing is ever certain and the withdrawal of the University of New South Wales from Singapore in 2007, after a semester, may make universities think twice before committing to a move overseas.

And riding on the wave of forecasts may be even riskier when a varsity’s identity is concerned.

Looking back, Prof Pollard admitted that the role of research was a major concern before Monash decided to set up its overseas campus here.

As a member of the Group of Eight— Austra-lia’s answer to the Russell Group – research had to be a priority and Monash had to ascertain what role the Malaysian campus would play.

“Research is extremely crucial to what we do and at the time, Malaysian institutions seemed more focused on running twinning programmes or franchise courses,” he said.

Prof Pollard added that the move to Malaysia has worked out well for all parties and its Malaysian campus can legitimately be regarded as a research university.

“We believe that a university should not just recycle knowledge but create new ideas,” he said.

Prof Kerr highlights similar concerns regarding the positioning of Curtin’s Miri campus.

“We realised that moving abroad was an essential path of Curtin’s globalisation but we had to do some hard thinking before coming up with the right study package,” he said.

“The total cost of studying in Miri is just a third of the fee one would pay in Australia and we decided to market Curtin Sarawak as a lower cost pathway.”

Prof Kerr added that in retrospect, the move to Malaysia was a good decision and with more emphasis on research, Curtin Sarawak would only get more vibrant.

Two-way traffic

While many are in favour of foreign branch campuses, the cynics are quick to write off their presence as mere dollar-chasing operations.

Both Prof Kerr and Prof Pollard emphasised that profits are reinvested into the branch campuses and the move to Malaysia was more about expanding their global presence, rather than securing a quick profit.

Adopting a pragmatic approach, Doxey said that although money would always be an issue for private companies, it should never be the biggest issue.

“It’s erroneous to say that it’s all about money,” he said. “Laureate has never sold a university regardless of its performance.

“And foreign private providers cannot extract capital whenever they like. In fact, the surplus value we obtain stays in Malaysia.

“In essence, we are a Malaysian company.”

Prof Siti Hamisah was also quick to point out that Malaysia would enjoy many long term benefits from the presence of foreign universities.

An increased inflow of foreign students, she said, was only the tip of the iceberg and other benefits had to be considered.

“Foreign universities have extensive networks and employ experts in various fields,” she said.

“Their presence in Malaysia opens doors for collaboration and our local university staff can only benefit from such experience.”

Likening the process to iron sharpening iron, Prof Siti Hamisah expressed her confidence that the Malaysian higher education landscape would improve in the long run.

The heads of foreign universities share the same sentiment and if their experience is anything to go by, Malaysia is pressing the right buttons in its quest to become a regional education hub.