UTeM To Lend A Helping Hand In Developing Palestine Human Capital

MELAKA (Malaysia), April 27 (Bernama) -- Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) here is looking to initiate several initiatives to lend a helping hand in developing human capital for the people of Palestine. UTeM Vice-Chansellor Prof Dr Shahrin Sahib@Sahibuddin said UTeM was considering to give Palestinian students special treatment in terms of tuition and related education fees. "We will take this to our board of directors in our next meeting for decision, insya-Allah (God willing) we will announce the decision at the end of May (next month)," he told Bernama here. He said UTeM had discussed this with Palestinian Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Anwar H. Al Agha during his visit to the university last Tuesday (April 21) and the ambassador applauded this initiative. "We are also discussing the possibility of bringing in Palestinian academicians with PHD qualification for an attachment program to have short or long term attachments for up to three years depending on the need of UTeM and the academicians," he said. Shahrin said this kind of initiative with a foreign university was important for academicians from Palestine universities to rake in new knowledge and technology in developing their country. Asked on how many Palestinian students UTeM planned to take in, he said the university did not have an exact allocation for Palestinian students and it all depended on the course itself. "For undergraduate courses, we as a public university have around 10 percent capping for international students, but for postgraduate courses we don't have that capping and as long as there are interests from them we take them in," he said. He said Malaysia for many years had always believed education was one of the main way to liberate any group of people, and UTeM hoped this education initiative would help Palestinians to liberate themselves. "In this era of globalisation public universities like UTeM were not only responsible to serve and develop local community, but international community as well especially the community in dire need like Palestinians," he said. -- BERNAMA