Government looking to set up university for women only

BY: Patrick Beech

The Higher Education Ministry plans to establish a university that specifically caters to women.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Noraini Ahmad said this would increase Malaysia’s visibility in higher education and further strengthen its position as an international higher education hub.

Currently the number of women enrolled in local public higher education institutions was more than 350,000 which constituted 61 per cent of the overall student enrolment, and more than 530,000, which was 53 per cent of female students, were enrolled in local private higher education institutions.

“Malaysia currently hosts 131,000 international students and we target to welcome 250,000 international students by 2025. This increase also includes a significantly larger student body consisting of women,” she said.

Noraini added that in the QS World University Rankings (QS WUR) 2023, there was only one local university listed in the top 100 and four out of five local research universities were listed in the top 200.

Another initiative that the ministry has been working on was the establishment of offshore programmes by local universities, such as Universiti Sains Malaysia, which established its offshore programmes in Turkey last year and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) which would begin its offshore programmes in Qatar next month.

Noraini said the ministry was committed to enhancing cooperation and reducing barriers in education services with its international counterparts.

“We believe that the internationalisation of higher education will increase competitiveness, which is an important driver of quality among our graduates,” she added.