Asyraf Wajdi: Three UK universities offer tuition discount for Mara students
LONDON: Three leading universities in the United Kingdom have agreed to offer tuition fee discounts of between 10 and 20 per cent to students sponsored by Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara), said its chairman Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki.
He said the discounts, secured through discussions between Mara and the universities' top management, could help reduce the financial burden by more than RM100,000 per student annually.
The three institutions are the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham, both offering a 20 per cent discount, while the University of Edinburgh has agreed to a 10 per cent reduction.
"To illustrate, Warwick is offering a discount of up to £6,000 a year. For a typical three-year undergraduate programme, that amounts to £18,000, or around RM110,000 in total, significantly lowering the overall cost," he said during a press conference today.
Asyraf Wajdi is currently in the UK for strategic meetings with senior leadership and prominent academics at the University of Cambridge, as well as several other institutions.
He said there are currently 1,508 Mara-sponsored students pursuing their studies in the UK.
He added that the Cambridge University Trust has also expressed interest in collaborating with Mara through a co-funding arrangement for postgraduate research students at the Master's and PhD levels.
"Insya-Allah, if all terms are finalised, Mara could save up to RM5 million through this initiative," he said.
He described the partnership as part of Mara's strategic agenda to ensure that Malaysian students are globally competitive in academic and professional fields.
Additionally, he said Cambridge University had agreed to send a delegation to Malaysia to engage with Maktab Rendah Sains Mara International General Certificate of Secondary Education (MRSM IGCSE) students.
The initiative, he said, aligns with Mara's goal to establish a dedicated academic feeder pathway for MRSM students seeking admission into top global universities.
Asyraf Wajdi also said that the collaboration would create opportunities for 9,987 Mara educators across vocational colleges, Mara universities and MRSMs to participate in knowledge exchange programmes.
"These educators will be able to undertake joint research and pursue postgraduate studies in strategic fields at Cambridge.
"These include renewable energy, artificial intelligence (AI), social sciences, quantum technology, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), entrepreneurial innovation, and other emerging disciplines that will shape the global economy of the future," he said.
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