Malaysia to expand higher education and scholarship opportunities for Maldivian students

The Malaysian government is committed to expanding higher education opportunities, scholarships, and postgraduate pathways for Maldivian students, says the Non-Resident High Commissioner of Malaysia to the Maldives, Badli Hisham bin Adam.

Speaking on Sun Online's Diplomatic Focus, Adam highlighted Malaysia's enduring popularity as a preferred destination for Maldivian students, attributing this to the country's high standard of education and affordable cost of living.

"In terms of education for those Maldivians who want to further their studies in Malaysia, we welcome them even to have postgraduate courses in Malaysia whereby during that time also they will be able to explore more opportunities," he said.

Adam emphasized that both governments are working within collaborative frameworks to strengthen institutional partnerships, enhance credit-transfer systems, and increase scholarship opportunities across various Malaysian universities.

"We can also have the cooperation within our framework in terms of scholarships, in terms of the place for those Maldivians who want to be in a variety of universities in Malaysia... We provide a very affordable kind of lifestyle in Malaysia and also for the education which is very good for the Maldivians to continue staying in Malaysia," he noted.

Beyond university education, Adam underlined Malaysia’s dedication to human resource and technical capacity building through specialized training initiatives.

"Malaysia also offers a lot of training programs under the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Program whereby we welcome Maldivians to come to Malaysia to learn from our experiences as well as our expertise that we have with our brotherly, not just brotherly but also sisterly... Maldivians," he added.

The educational partnership between the two nations was further reinforced during the recent official visit of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to the Maldives, where high-level discussions were held with President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu. The leaders agreed to establish a joint commission to address bilateral matters effectively, including facilitating a smoother experience for the Maldivian student community residing in Malaysia.