Page 23 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

Munusamy and Hashim, 2021

human resources for nation growth (Ismail & Mahani, 2002). The establishment of Universiti
Malaya in Kuala Lumpur in 1959 marked the official beginning of the higher education system
in Malaysia that has since shaped societal development in Malaysia. However, the development
of the Malaysian higher education system has been much affected by the new phenomenon
called the “internationalisation of higher education” (Morshidi, 2010). The development of
higher education in Malaysia was significantly enhanced after the establishment of MOHE in
2004 (Dobos, 2011). Although MOHE was re-structured under the Ministry of Education,
Malaysia several times, it has re-operated again under the Perikatan Nasional government
starting March 2020 (BERNAMA, 2020).

The Malaysian higher education system encompasses public and private higher learning
institutions. There are 20 government-owned public universities and more than 450 private
higher education institutions operating in Malaysia to cater to the needs of local and
international students (MOHE, 2018). After three years of establishment of MOHE, in 2007,
the first policy document, the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (NHESP) 2007-2020
was introduced. The inauguration of this policy directed the starting point for enhancement of
the Malaysian higher education system and the higher learning institutions in Malaysia
(Norzaini, Morshidi, & Abdul Razak, 2014). The transformation of the higher education system
through internationalisation for Malaysia to become a higher education hub was embarked on
in 2007. Furthermore, Malaysia has the ambition to acquire a leading position as a regional
higher education hub in the Southeast Asia region to recruit more international students and
talents (Zayed & Ali, 2015).
Consequently, in 2015, Malaysia introduced a new higher education blueprint to position
Malaysia as one of the international higher education hubs in the region with a goal of 250,000
international students by 2025 and to be recognised worldwide (MOE, 2015). The significant
shift in the blueprint in this respect is Shift 8: Global prominence which emphasises the
internationalisation of Malaysian higher education (Chang Da & Morshidi, 2017). The key goal
is to produce human capital for economic growth (Morshidi et al., 2019). The blueprint aims
to position Malaysian universities at the top in the global university rankings to achieve
enhanced internationalisation. Furthermore, Malaysian research universities and several
private universities have also embarked on internationalisation and implemented strategies to
achieve high ranking in the international ranking system (Morshidi et al., 2019). A study
conducted by Dumanig & Symaco (2020) shows that Malaysia is improving research activities
and translating higher education policies into vision and mission statement of higher education
institutions to champion internationalisation. In a nutshell, the efforts, strategies and plans
developed by the Malaysian government encourage higher education institutions to compete in
the global market (Abdul Rahman, Farley, & Moonsamy, 2012) to achieve world-class status
to become an international higher education hub in the region (Grapragasem, Krishnan, &
Mansor, 2014).

Data and Methodology

The sample for this qualitative study was selected through a non-probability sampling by
applying the purposive and expert sampling methods (Etikan, Musa, & Alkassim, 2016). The
internationalisation and inter-regional cooperation experts were selected through expert
sampling to collect sufficient data. Based on both sampling methods, higher officials of
MOHE, including its departments and agencies and Directors of the International Offices of
five research universities as well as international experts on internationalisation were
interviewed in their respective offices. The number of interviewees and their organisations are
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