POTENTIAL COLLABORATORS: Dato’ Peter Ng – UCSI Group founder and chairman (sixth from left); Mr Gong Wan – CSCSE deputy director general (seventh from left); and Prof Dato’ Dr Khalid Yusoff – vice-chancellor and president, UCSI University, with other UCS

GO BEYOND: Prof Dato’ Dr Khalid Yusoff, UCSI University vice-chancellor and president addressing the importance of the Asian Century for tertiary education institutions.

COOPERATING FOR THE FUTURE: Mr Gong Wan – CSCSE deputy director general, saying that the Seminar was important to strengthen the education sector links between Malaysia and China.

A MEETING OF EDUCATORS: Participants of the Seminar on the Higher Education System in the People’s Republic of China looking with rapt attention at one of the presentation.

KUALA LUMPUR: UCSI University (UCSI) had the honour of being the sole university in Malaysia to host the Seminar on the Higher Education System in the People’s Republic of China. The seminar saw delegates from 34 tertiary education institutions from all over China introduce their respective institutions and discuss potential academic collaborations with UCSI. 

The seminar was organised by the Chinese Service Centre for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE), a corporate body affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education, which specialises in the scholarly exchange of students from and to China. 

“As UCSI has a high level of successful internationalisation [activities/initiatives], our delegation came to learn from it, not only from the academic aspect but also regarding quality assurance practices,” said Mr Gong Wan, CSCSE, deputy director general. 

He added that with more than 70 participants, the delegation was the largest from China to visit Malaysia in the last decade, underscoring the strong bilateral relationship between the two countries that was further reaffirmed with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Malaysia in October this year. 

In the education sector, this relationship is exemplified by the number of mainland Chinese students studying in Malaysia and vice versa. According to Gong, there are more than 10,000 mainland Chinese students in Malaysia and over 6,000 Malaysian students in China. 

This connection with China is one that is very important to both UCSI and Malaysia, pointed out UCSI vice-chancellor and president Prof Dato’ Dr Khalid Yusoff. 

“The 21st century has been touted as the Asian Century. China is expected to be the greatest economic force by 2017, and one-third of the world’s trade passes through the Straits of Malacca. The question is, what does this have to do with us, tertiary education institutions?” he said. 

He then explained that tertiary education institutions are responsible to ensure that both nations have adequate trained human resource and suitable expertise. 

Thus, he pointed out that this Seminar was an excellent opportunity for UCSI and the Chinese universities to exchange valuable knowledge as well as set up various task forces for future collaborations. 

His views were echoed by Mr Gong Wan. 

“Mainland Chinese and Malaysian students will also benefit from building contacts with each other that will serve them, particularly in the fast growing trade industry, long after they have graduated.” 

Some of the participating tertiary education institutions included Dalian Maritime University – the only maritime institution under the Ministry of Transport, Dongbei University of Finance & Economics – one of the oldest in Dalian, and China University of Political Science and Law – known as the leading law school in the country. 

UCSI Group founder and chairman Dato’ Peter Ng, who was also in attendance, acknowledged the prestige of the visiting tertiary education institutions. 

“With all 34 visiting tertiary education institutions being of high calibre, our collaborations will help Asia develop into a force to be reckoned with.”