E-Prosiding Seminar Pengantarabangsaan Pengajian Tinggi 2022 (SPPT 2022)

International collaborations between higher education institutions bring significant contributions to the overall ecosystem of an organisation, from the personnel, students, and the global community as a whole. The internationalisation of an institution is one of the mechanisms communities adapt to the idea of globalisation. This paper discusses the effective methods of strengthening international collaboration between Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) and German universities via a dual-degree programme. The dual-degree programme is designed to invent graduates who are extensively prepared to face the future challenges of globalisation. The institution has implemented various approaches to strengthen the programme's strong foundation to intensify the primary purpose of internationalisation, such as establishing a comprehensive German language proficiency test to prepare the students for the dual-degree programme. However, language is not the sole approach to boost internationalisation as intercultural skills, extensive academic collaboration programmes, and mobility programmes are interconnected to the idea of internationalisation. These approaches are momentous to ensure the dual-degree programme's efficacy in attaining the purposes of academic collaboration and enriching students' experiences. In addition to the approaches adopted, different initiatives are recommended to improvise the internationalisation notion to facilitate the advancement of the internationalisation programme of the university. In conclusion, the essence of internationalisation requires various concepts to be implemented by the institution to strengthen international collaboration.

Agenda pendidikan masa kini bersifat lebih global dan terbuka. Setiap negara di seluruh dunia berusaha untuk menjadikan institusi pendidikan di negara masing-masing bersifat holistik dan lestari melalui polisi pengantarabangsaan pendidikan. Secara tidak langsung, pintu sempadan antara negara mula dibuka bagi tujuan pendidikan sekali gus meningkatkan mobiliti pelajar di seluruh dunia walaupun terdapat pelbagai halangan dan cabaran yang ditempuh sebelum dan semasa berada di negara tuan rumah. Kertas refleksi ini mengupas pengalaman penyelidik melanjutkan pengajian di peringkat pasca siswazah dan menjalankan penyelidikan pengantarabangsaan pendidikan tinggi yang memberi fokus kepada pengalaman penyesuaian pelajar Malaysia semasa menetap dan belajar di universiti Australia. Proses refleksi tertumpu kepada pengalaman pemerhatian, pengetahuan dan kefahaman tentang isu dan cabaran serta manfaat yang diperolehi pelajar Malaysia sebagai pelajar antarabangsa. Kertas refleksi ini juga memberikan beberapa cadangan penambahbaikan pengurusan pelajar Malaysia di luar negara dan nilai tambah kepada polisi pengantarabangsaan pendidikan tinggi di dalam negara.

Malaysia, once a colonised country, is becoming known worldwide in many aspects, one of which is gaining international attraction, education. Since its independence in 1957, the education plan in Malaysia has gone through tremendous reforms. In line with the fourth industrial revolution, Malaysia has not been left out to be up-to-date with the technological advancement in the 21st century education. This has resulted in Malaysia becoming a choice for education hub among international students. To continue the aspirations of the government, one of the ten shifts in the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2015-2025 is the internationalisation agenda. Many researches have been conducted to investigate the policies and strategies to increase the number of international student intake at tertiary level. However, there is lack of research on how Malaysian university students are also helping out in achieving the internationalisation agenda. Thus, this paper examines how Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) is responding to the internationalisation phenomenon. This paper begins by providing the background to the country’s internationalisation agenda at tertiary level, and past studies that are relevant to the focus of the paper. Using USIM as a case study in its signature internationalisation initiative, the Global Islamic Student Outreach (GISO), this article examines one GISO activity conducted in 2018 by a group of students from the Faculty of Major Language Studies the activities. The outcomes of the programme is presented and future initiative taken by the faculty to maintain the international collaboration is highlighted.

When the pandemic hit and the physical movement restriction was enforced worldwide, all sectors especially international higher education reacted reactively towards the new and unprecedented challenges. The partnerships among universities and countries halted for a while before finding out that the virtual realm allows the relationship to carry on, and even foster old ones and create new partnerships via online means. UKM shares the challenges, the success stories and the best practices hosting webinars during the pandemic and how it helps to lessen the bridging gaps among partners, old and new. Not only webinars manage to gather enthusiast from all corners of the world, but it also connects parties with similar intention to start a new partnership and creates more opportunities for the masses to connect and engage.

As a young, gifted institution, Kolej GENIUS Insan strives to make its presence felt in the academic landscape in this country and the region. This study explores the internationalisation programs that have been conducted by the college and discovers the participants’ experience in their journey in some of the programs they joined. Their personal insights helped enlighten the effectiveness of the organised internationalisation programs in shaping their mind and understanding on cultural values of the place and people they visited. This paper analysed their individual reflections shared in the form of written journal, reports, and videos. In their own words, the students had been incredibly positive with their involvement in the programs as they valued the pristine environment, system and culture which were considered refreshing and tantalising to their conscience and awareness. This new form of learning was positively welcome by all participants as it successfully provided those lessons never imagined from their typical student’s life in school. Their experience from the programs they joined would be valuable knowledge and skills that will stay with them in the years to come.

Studies have shown that Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation requires more localization of context. Deeper understanding of local real-world problems, like food insecurity and its relationship with education, is required. Further, collaborations between rural, urban, and international stakeholders are needed in light of complex problems. Technology to support this, like the metaverse, integrated with pedagogies like game-based learning can help. Thus, this project reviews a government-facilitated effort to create collaborations to set up a metaverse-learning curriculum for language learning and green technology curriculum for TVET instructors in Malaysian Polytechnics and Community Colleges. Two training sessions were conducted to refine a metaverse-learning conceptual model. Based on the metaverse model, instructors were able to utilize non player characters to create robot-assisted learning experiences through story and dialogue through multiple scenes. Scenes are also planned to be integrated across partner countries in Thailand and Hong Kong to create more authentic learning. Instructors found the collaboration interesting and were motivated to put in more effort to support the model. In this study, a conceptual model for international collaborations across different subjects like language learning, sustainability and agricultural innovation. A metaverse game-based learning model is also discussed.

Malaysia and South Korea started a partnership in 1962 and since then the partnership has become stronger including in education. In line with this encouragement, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) has strengthened its partnership with South Korean educational institutions through TVET Campus which has developed since 2017. One of the institutions is Korea Polytechnics (KOPO). UTHM-KOPO partnership is relatively new and considering this new pandemical era, a representative partnership model that considers both UTHM and KOPO’s capacities and circumstances has not yet been well established. The absence of a representative model could result in complex challenges, especially in identifying important and necessary steps to internationalization, and further create financial, energy, and time loss. Thus, this study aims to develop a representative model of the internationalization management framework for Malaysian higher education. The development adapts the Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify (DMADV) technique which is commonly used in the field of quality management. There are two phases will be involved; (1) 'Define' and 'Measure' stages where a preliminary framework will be established and (2) 'Analyze', 'Design' and 'Verify' stages where a comprehensive internationalization framework will be developed. Both phases involve document analysis of policies, procedures, and monitoring processes, and meta-analysis of related internationalization acts and literature of Malaysia and South Korea. The framework will also be conceptualized against the current internationalization practices of both countries especially to embed any potential added-value elements in producing a systematic, practical, and economical model tool for UTHM and KOPO in operationalizing international activities. As such, planned internationalization activities could be well coordinated for a sustainable internationalization process. In the longer run, the model should assist the Malaysian and South Korean education ministries to monitor the progress of internationalization in both countries.

In recent years, Malaysia has been attracting many international students to our public higher institution, which is expected to increase by the year 2025. This research objective examines the relationship between English proficiency and social support on academic adjustment and acculturative stress among international students. Guided by the Berry Acculturation Model (1997), this quantitative research design uses the survey method to collect data from the sample. A total of 129 data was collected. Results revealed a positive correlation between English proficiency and academic adjustment and a positive correlation between social support and academic adjustment, however no significant correlation on acculturation stress. Findings from multiple linear regression analysis further showed that English proficiency significantly predicted their academic adjustment. Neither main effects nor between-subjects effects of gender and length of stay in Malaysia is significant on students’ academic adjustment and acculturative stress. This research will contribute to the international students to increase their awareness of the importance of English proficiency and social support on academic adjustment. It also gives insight to the public higher institution to create support services and the community and local students can be aware of giving help to the international students.

The purpose of this research is to predict the effect of empathy (EM), moral obligation (MOB), self-efficacy (SE), and social support (SS) on social entrepreneurship competency (SEC). Drawing upon theory planned behavior (TPB) and experiential learning theory (ELT), using stratified random sampling and cross-sectional research design, the study collected and analyzed 384 questionnaires with a response rate of 73.8% from students ENACTUS universities members in the Guangdong province, China. The study revealed that MOB, SE, and SS were significantly influenced SEC. Although EM records an insignificant effect on SEC. The results also indicated that EL positively influences SEC substantially. This study addressed the critical role of EL in strengthening students’ social entrepreneurial competency. The study advances TPB by elaborating on new insights to determine the importance of EL and students' social entrepreneurial skills to develop existing social entrepreneurial competencies.

Institutional Internationalisation is one of the utmost agendas for every university and higher learning institution around the globe to enhance their academic and research quality, as well as sustaining their global visibility and branding. This strategy is extremely important as the world has become more open and everyone in university needs to interact, works together and strives for the well-being and prosperity of mankind. As this global visibility will lead to a sustainable international collaboration, therefore it is a must for every university and higher learning institution in this era to have a good partnership with other institutions from other countries. In this borderless world, any academic programme and research activities will also become more inclusive and comprehensive if it is organized in synergy with other institutions, especially from different countries. As a young university, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has outlined three main models of collaborations to outreach any potential international partners from all over the world. The first model is bi-lateral agreements which is based on one to one agreement between UTM and another institution. The second model is focusing on academic networks or consortiums of universities based on niche focus areas. The last model is a strategic international collaboration with reputable universities. Focusing on the collaboration via alliances, rather than just being a member of other international networks, UTM has also formed its own alliance which is known as Asia Technological University Network (ATU-Net). Therefore, this paper will illustrate how UTM establishes and manages ATU-Net and its impact on enhancing UTM's global visibility. The impact, which is visible through the addition of UTM's new partners, more joint activities and programmes with other international education institutions, aligns with the significant improvement in UTM's global ranking.

Globalisation is increasingly affecting every part of what is happening worldwide. With the help of globalisation, students everywhere can further their studies abroad. Activities such as student exchange programs and virtual cross-border forums had been introduced to help realise the mission. Nevertheless, the movement of international students has become more and more vulnerable to upheavals in politics, culture, economy, and public health, especially during the pandemic. Now, approaching the post-pandemic era, higher education institutions have been called to accelerate sustainable internationalization aspirations to make sure they are ready for a more cooperative global community. Past research had dwelled on the subject of post-pandemic learning with a variety of issues and solutions. International students had some problems managing their way of adapting to the locals and the normalities within the country. Thus, presented here are a series propositions to help sustain and enrich the international students’ experiences who are studying at local institutes to be adopted by the institutions even during unprecedented uncertainties and some of the best practices implemented by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), serving a student population of diverse cultures and backgrounds. A qualitative research method will be used to support the findings as well as acquiring data and information from various research papers that had been published before ranging from the year 2020 until today. Solutions like providing cultural exposure and digital learning demonstrated by the institution had been found to be practical enough for assessing the issue. Regardless, institutions hosting international students should be able to impart a more inclusive and multicultural environment throughout.

Malaysia aims to become the hub of international higher education. It is parallel with the current market trends that showed Asian universities are now becoming the main choice among international students to further their tertiary education. On becoming the best higher education provider, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education has tabled its own internationalisation plans and policies, expanding upon and going beyond the guidelines set out by the Malaysian government. Apart from that, the Malaysian government and its related institutions came out with plans, procedures, and resources to entice overseas students together with the efforts taken by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The objectives of this study is to explore the factors behind migrating international students to Malaysia for higher study and examine the experiences that they face during studying at a Malaysian university. Third-country students choose Malaysia to further their higher education because of scholarships and grants, various initiatives, extended visas, high-quality education, social security, and rankings of universities. Additional appealing elements like tuition costs, ideological and cultural compatibility, language skills, job availability, and simple immigration procedures might affect their decision. However, the above-mentioned privileges are also certainly offered by other countries. Therefore, this research aims to comprehend the other justified reasons why international students decide to pursue their higher education in Malaysian universities, with a special focus on East-Coast universities. This research also makes an effort to analyze the experiences experienced by international students during their study period in Malaysia. The primary theoretical framework for discussing the findings of the study is the "Push and Pull factors" approach. Interviews were conducted with 25 international students enrolled in postgraduate programs at the East Coast universities in Malaysia. Education quality, world-class institutions, social security, the standard of living, simple application procedures, and Malaysia's amazing arts, culture, and heritage (MAACH) are recognized as major "pull factors" behind the decision of international students in choosing Malaysia as a higher education destination. Meanwhile, Social insecurity, political instability, educational opportunity and quality of the home country, personal choice, and job opportunity are found to be the major "push factors." The findings of this research offer prospective international students the best consequences they will experience when studying in Malaysia.

To be a top player in internationalisation, universities attempt to provide international students with an overall rich and rewarding experience that kick-starts their careers post-graduation, especially in terms of employability in the post COVID19 pandemic era. However, the international student experience should also serve to remind international students of a positive and memorable time in their lives, filled with a myriad of opportunities for cross-cultural learning. Thus, from the moment they arrive in their host country, universities could help international students to connect meaningfully with local students and also the local community. Using archival study, the authors offer a conceptual discussion on the notion of “local encounter” to demonstrate the exposure international students can gain from taking part in local events designed for them; examples from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) are used as evidence. The research finding shows that there continues to be room for practitioners to rethink how they may enrich their overall international student engagement through the local network, an area that is often underrepresented in international education studies.

COVID-19 pandemic and its afterward endemic phase has caused a huge change on the educational institutions, yet provided new opportunities for universities gaining new breed of online generation, and enabling universities to be more diversified and potentially to extend for hybrid teaching and learning. International mobility programme has always been a good input and resource for universities, and the experience by students completed their course have extensive influence to the junior at their respective institution, in becoming new batches of international mobility students. This paper will discuss on two different perspectives of international mobility students based on the conventional programme right before the pandemic, discussion on the feedback and several cases being mentioned, as well as the new SHARE COIL course that getting more popular amongst 32 partner universities listed under COIL. Results on the impact of SHARE COIL course enriching students experience are also being reported in this paper. The paper here provides an insight that would always be meaningful to the international mobility students came from different countries within the past many years. It is concluded that the success of international mobility programme could be much impacted by the facilitation process exercised by the international relations office of each respective universities, and requires joint effort for a great internal ecosystem. Added-value could be well obtained when there is mutual understanding and commitment between management to provide full support, international relations office to facilitate, and faculty to execute. Coordinators for mobility students and education exhibitions would indirectly impact the success of the programme as well.

The internationalization of higher education and intense level of competition among tertiary education providers require universities to continuously improve its service quality. The national agenda to achieve 250,000 international students enrolment by year 2025 as projected in the Malaysia Higher Education Blueprint 2015 to 2025 (MEBHE) provides opportunity to consistently increase the enrolment of international students. However, the scenario experienced by the nation is continuous declining trend of international student enrolment since 2018. The literature showed that many studies have been undertaken in the past, but little has explored the integration between the mediating role of trust in the context of higher education service quality in Malaysia. This study is one of the preliminary attempts to study the HESQUAL model with an integration of the Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing and the IS Continuance Theory within the context of private universities in Malaysia. The research objectives are, RO1: To investigate the influence of HESQUAL on trust in Malaysia’s private universities; RO2: To investigate the influence of trust on the continuance intention of study; and RO3: To analyse the mediating role of trust between HESQUAL and international students’ continuance intention of study. Positivism worldview using quantitative method guided this research. Data collection was administered through web-based survey questionnaire and a total of 395 respondents contributed to the survey out of which 346 data were usable. SPSS and SmartPLS software were used to analyse the data. The findings confirmed the significance of mediating role of trust with the HESQUAL dimensions towards continuance intention of study except the support facilities quality. Statistical findings proved the conceptual model with medium predictive power that signifies its replication for future research.

Pengantarabangsaan kini telah menjadi salah satu agenda penting dalam Institusi Pengajian Tinggi (IPT) bagi membolehkannya bersaing di peringkat global. Untuk kekal berdaya saing, penerapan budaya inovasi dalam sistem penyampaian dan perkhidmatan sokongan merupakan salah satu usaha yang perlu dilaksanakan supaya sentiasa berada pada tahap berprestasi tinggi terutamanya apabila jumlah enrolmen pelajar antarabangsa semakin meningkat di IPT. Pelbagai isu dan cabaran perlu dihadapi dalam memastikan tahap kepuasan pelanggan dipenuhi. UTM International (UTM-i) sentiasa komited dalam memberikan penyampaian perkhidmatan terbaik kepada para pelajar antarabangsa. Persoalan sejauh manakah perkhidmatan yang diberikan khususnya dalam urusan pas pelajar benar-benar memberikan tahap kepuasan yang tinggi kepada pelajar antarabangsa UTM dan apakah inisiatif dan penambahbaikan yang dilakukan untuk memastikan tahap perkhidmatan berprestasi tinggi perlu diperhalusi. Sehubungan dengan itu, UTM-i telah melibatkan diri dalam soal selidik International Student Barometer Survey Autum 2017 dan 2018 yang menilai pengalaman pelajar dari aspek lima (5) komponen utama iaitu pengalaman ketibaan, pengalaman pembelajaran, hubungan, pengalaman kehidupan di Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) dan pengalaman perkhidmatan sokongan. Hasil dari soal selidik ini juga, UTM-i telah melaksanakan beberapa inisiatif dan penambahbaikan dalam perkhidmatan dan pengurusan pas pelajar. Justeru, kertas kerja ini merupakan satu bentuk perkongsian pengalaman terdahulu dan amalan terbaik berkenaan usaha UTM-i dalam menambahbaik sistem perkhidmatan dan pengurusan pas pelajar antarabangsa.

A significant number of local academicians were awarded opportunity to study abroad for their PhD. However, this figure is contradicted with the number of scientific articles published by one academician with his/her PhD supervisor. With the strict criteria being set by the Times Higher Education 2014 Ranking with regard to citations and internationalism, it is of great interest to strategize on the the co-authorship work between local academicians and their foreign PhD supervisors. To illustrate this, a case study is presented in this paper involving an academia from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) and his former PhD supervisor from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). A series of published journal and proceeding articles are listed, of which collaboratively written by both parties. The articles comprise the ones being published during and after PhD completion, with some awards achieved at the respective conferences. This case study is aimed to inspire other academicians in adapting the same strategy.

A degree in medicine has long been one of the most sought-after pursuits for secondary school and university graduates worldwide. For various reasons, sizable number of students would flock overseas to pursue medical studies. These international medical students, while having their opportunities to follow their doctoring desire, they also have distinct challenges to overcome. One Malaysian medical school has a unique curriculum where students spend first half of their studies in Dublin, then return to Penang for the second half of the course. This brief report addresses some pertinent issues that international students frequently encounter.

University websites provide information that may influence international students’ choice of an institution. In the context of Malaysia, studies on university websites remain minimal and highly contextual. To address this gap, this study will conduct a discourse analysis on websites of both public and private universities in Malaysia. A total of 40 websites were selected to form a corpus. The analysis involved the identification of significant collocates for the key words “international” and “student(s)”. These collocates were then discussed through academic capitalism framing. The findings indicated that university websites offered information that was either procedural, or that which explained how an institution was international. This analysis painted international students as customers requiring assistance from a university. Findings also showed that being an international student in Malaysia would bring about social mobility through interactions with other international students.

Academic recognition from overseas universities is an important matter for international students. In fact, international students must go through various challenges which require them to adapt to the system and cultural differences. This study explores the learning experience of international students in Malaysia who are pursuing academic studies at a local university by focusing on the students' perceptions, values, and emotions towards the experience. A total of 47 international students participated in answering the question. Data were analysed using a frequency and thematic analysis. There are three types of learning experiences encountered by international students, namely positive experiences, negative experiences, and mixed experiences. Each type of experience is supported by statements that highlight the students' values, emotions and perceptions of the events that happened to them. It is hoped that this study can help educational institutions build a support system for international students as well as improve the quality of learning experience at local universities.