Page 24 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

AEI Insights, Vol 7, Issue 1, 2021

as shown in Table 1. Eleven male and four female took part in the interviews. The semi-
structured interviews were conducted by using an interview instrument with contents
encompassing international and interregional cooperation, features of the AEP and the
internationalisation of higher education. This interview instrument was verified by two
internationalisation experts and endorsed by University of Malaya Research Ethics Committee.

Table 1: Number of interviewees and organisation

No Organisation Number of Gender
interviewees Male Female

1 Ministry of Higher Education 3 3 0
2 Department of Higher Education 3 2 1
Department of Polytechnic Education and
3 Community Colleges 1 1 0

4 Malaysian Qualifications Agency 1 1 0
5 Education Malaysia Global Services 1 1 0
6 International Office –Research University 5 2 3
7 Internationalisation Expert 1 1 0

Total 15 11 4

Each interview session was held for approximately one to one and a half hours and an audio-
recorder and iPhone-6S were used to record the interview sessions. The recording of each
interview was transmitted into Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) software (Nvivo-11) in word
format. The volume of data was coded and analysed by concentrating on qualitative content
analysis method (Schreier, 2012). The qualitative content analysis method provided an
opportunity to conduct explanatory analysis and assisted coding rendering for interpretation,
classification and analysis (Kuckartz, 2014). An inductive approach was employed to identify
themes and categories and finally, the coding frame was developed according to key elements
of the AEP and the internationalisation of higher education. The analysis of the qualitative data
through Nvivo 11 software facilitated the production of an exact transcription and allowed the
use of direct quotations in the results section (Kuckartz, 2014).

Findings
The results of the semi-structured interviews show that the impact of the AEP can be seen in
six domains in the internationalisation of higher education in Malaysia (Figure 1). These are
international and inter-regional cooperation, networks and networking, exchange programmes,
industry-academia collaboration, academic qualifications recognition and continuing and
professional education. The insights and views of the interviewees are provided in the themes
below.

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