Education Malaysia Fair opens in Doha

Nine Malaysian universities are taking part in the two-day Education Malaysia Fair in Doha, providing students with extensive and insightful information on diverse and quality educational opportunities in Malaysia.Organised by MY Aspiration (Malaysia) and led by Education Malaysia Dubai, the event opened Friday at JW Marriott Marquis Hotel, City Centre Doha.It is supported by the Malaysian embassy in Doha.The participating universities are: Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, International Medical University, Management and Science University, SEGi University, Sunway University, Swinburne University of Technology Malaysia Campus, Taylor’s University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and the University of Nottingham Malaysia.“The embassy of Malaysia is very happy to have the organiser, Marliza Zorakin Malek (managing director of MY Aspiration), come over to Doha and to restart this process (which had been put on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic) – the usual thing that we do to promote the higher education in Malaysia and to promote universities,” Malaysian ambassador Zamshari Shaharan told reporters on the sidelines of the event.The embassy noted that Malaysian universities rank in the world’s top universities, and with a total of 35 in the top 600, based on QS World University Rankings 2021.The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021 shows that 32 Malaysian programmes were placed among the top 100 universities for the study of their academic subject.Five Malaysian universities featured in the QS World University Rankings for 2022, headed by Universiti Malaya (now ranked 65th in the world).According to Malek, some of the nine leading Malaysian universities participating in the fair are recognised by Qatar’s Ministry of Higher Education.She said that these Malaysian universities have different niches, from medical and health sciences to engineering, computer science, and information technology (IT).In a pre-registration conducted among 25 nationalities from Qatar last month, Malek noted that at least one-third are highly interested in medicine, followed by engineering, and computer science and IT.The embassy noted that there are 100,381 international students from 160 countries who are currently pursuing their studies in international schools, colleges, universities, language centres, and training institutes in Malaysia as of December 2021.Of this figure, more than 11,010 students are from Bahrain, Djibouti, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the UAE, including expatriate students, and 77 Qataris.Malaysia is also hosting branch campuses of prestigious universities from the UK, the US, Australia, and China.Students pay only a fraction of the cost when studying in Malaysia compared to what they need to pay in the main campus.