Page 25 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

Munusamy and Hashim, 2021

International
and
Interregional
Cooperation
Continuing
and Networks and
Professional Networking
Education

AEP

Adademic Exchange
Qualifications Programmes
Recognition
Industry-
Academia
Collaboration

Figure 1: The outcomes of the AEP in the higher education internationalisation in Malaysia

International and interregional cooperation
The first factor identified was the international and inter-regional cooperation feature of the
AEP. Under this theme, interviewees highlighted that the AEP promotes regionalism and
strategic alliances. An expert in the area of internationalisation and former Director-General of
Department of Higher Education (DHE) stated that “it is interesting to see Asia and Europe
coming together to forge an alliance in higher education matters such as student exchanges,
the flow of expertise, research collaboration and collaborative projects in higher education”.
The expert indicated that the strategic alliances through the AEP’s political and stakeholders’
level meetings offer a venue to meet various stakeholders and policymakers between ASEAN,
East Asia and the EU. This is the reason why the AEP is vital for higher education cooperation
between two important continents in the world, Asia and Europe. A respondent from one of
the research universities in the Klang Valley with more than five years of experience in
internationalisation said that “inter-regional cooperation has improved our ability to accept or
to interact with people outside ASEAN”. Furthermore, strategic alliances by sharing and
learning best practices contribute to enhanced collaboration between Malaysia and other
ASEM partner countries as stated by two Senior Officers of the departments under MOHE as
follows; “Malaysia can work closely with Europe to enhance our higher education system
because they have a good system” and “I think it can help to enhance the landscape of higher
education system in Malaysia”. In this context, a respondent believed that the international
cooperation created via the AEP provides an effective platform for Malaysia to recruit more
international post-graduate students from Asia and Europe, one of the key pillars to success in
higher education internationalisation (Senior Director of DHE). However, a higher official of
MOHE recommended that “all stakeholders especially Foreign Affairs Ministry of Malaysia
must take initiative and focus more on ASEM” to maintain the effective international and inter-
regional cooperation in higher education through the AEP and as a move to go beyond regional
cooperation.

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