JEDDAH, 26 October 2004 — Two new incentives are being offered to students studying or opting to study in Malaysia. First, they have been offered a discount in air tickets and second they will be eligible to write their exams here if they have a valid reason for not being able to make it to Malaysia to take the exam. One Saudi student has already availed the second facility.
These two facilities are being offered by the education consul’s office at the Malaysian Consulate General here. The offer is for both Saudis and expatriates from Saudi Arabia.
As per a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed last week by the education consul’s office and Malaysian Airlines in Jeddah, students already studying in Malaysia and those joining anew will get discount on tickets on the Jeddah-Malaysia sector.
The MoU was signed by Muhammad Radhi ibn Hamzah, education consul, and Morad Omar, area manager, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Yemen of Malaysia Airlines. It was witnessed by Mrs. Zainon bint Mustaffa of the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education’s department of higher education and Mir Ahmed Ali, sales executive of the airline in Jeddah. Present on the occasion were Consul General Zulkifli Yaacob.
Radhi said that the tickets would be of one-year validity and in economy class. The period covered is from Sept. 1 to May 31. “The facility can be availed by those who are to join a university in Malaysia or those who come here on holidays on a one-way ticket and need to go back,” he added. All they have to do is to present their student ID to the education consul’s office, which will then issue a letter for Malaysia Airlines to buy the ticket at a discount.
“We want to make studying in Malaysia as affordable and comfortable as possible, and widely available,” Consul General Yaacob told Arab News. Right now there are about 2,000 students from Saudi Arabia pursuing various fields of study in Malaysia, and there has been a steady increase in inquiries from Saudi students.
Radhi said the other facility is that if for some valid reason a student cannot take an exam in Malaysia, he can do so at the education consul’s office. The condition is that he/she must have written permission from his university and the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said that a final year engineering student of International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) — Hassan Mohammad Abukaber has availed of this facility, which is available at all Malaysian missions abroad.
Hassan had to come to Jeddah for personal reasons and because of family and financial problems could not return to IIUM. He took the exam on Monday. It was supervised by Radhi.
A study tour of the Gulf and Middle East by a team of IIUM revealed that students from the region preferred family accommodation. The university has asked a Malaysian property development and management company — SP UIA, Sdn. Bhd., to prepare accommodation meeting these requirements. The project, under construction, will cost $53 million. It comprises four buildings interconnected with each other – all 3+1 room apartments.
Recently, one of Malaysia’s leading universities — Multimedia University (MMU) had signed a Student Recruitment Agreement with Qawafil Al-Amal for Development (QAA) under which the latter will act as the “non-transferable and non-exclusive student recruitment agent of MMU for marketing” of the university’s academic programs and recruiting students for such programs in Saudi Arabia. It will also “introduce, promote, and market undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs available at MMU.”
