PENANG, October 2015 – Many may not be aware that the educational facilities in India are considered as among the best, as evidenced by the success in the collaboration between Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and India via the International Medical Programme (IMP) with Karnataka-Lingayat Education Society (KLE), which will see its first batch of students graduating this year.

Representative of the Indian High Commission office in Kuala Lumpur, Sushovan Sengupta gave his remarks while attending the USM 2nd Ambassadors Summit 2015 Programme at USM recently, where he said that even the students at KLE have proposed for USM to explore plans in establishing postgraduate studies in the field of medicine in the future.

"Knowledge can be attained from every corner of the world and India accepts students from Malaysia who have the necessary qualifications to fulfil the requirements of the universities here, and the universities in India also admit foreign students within a limited quota to continue their studies at the respective educational institutions," added Sushovan.

Stressed Sushovan more, the education system in India is of high quality and offered at reasonable costs.

"The problem or obstacle for Malaysia is that certain undergraduate degrees from India are not recognised by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA), therefore MQA needs to offer advisory services to Malaysian students who aspire to continue their studies in India, to choose the educational institutions which are rightfully recognised by them.

Meanwhile, the USM Pro-Chancellor, Tan Sri Datuk Mustafa Mansur who was the moderator for this session said, our education system is indebted to the Indian education system, in being the reference for the local education system while in its initial stage, as there were many students who studied medicine under private sponsorship from Malaysia who would choose India for them to further their studies.

Attending this year’s USM Ambassadors Summit Programme were those representing 10 countries, namely Malaysia (USM), Bangladesh, Denmark, India, Indonesia, France, Pakistan, Czech Republic, Palestine and Nigeria.

Translation: Mazlan Hanafi Basharudin

Text: Hafiz Meah Ghouse Meah