...Higher Education Issues...

Foundation to help needy students settle PTPTN loans
Needy college and university students who do well will receive help from the Tunku Abdul Rahman Foundation to settle their National Higher Education Fund Corp (PTPTN) loans when they graduate.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the foundation will help those who graduate with first class honors and are active in co-curricular activities. The foundation will take into account the family income as well as the number of siblings. Khaled also said that liberalizing the higher education sector in the country does not mean it will be a free-for-all with any foreign university allowed to set up branches here.



Joint expo to showcase R&D

THE International Exposition of Research and Inventions of Institutions of Higher Learning (PECIPTA), which will be held for the fifth time this year, will draw the attention of local and international industries.
The exposition to be held from Oct 8 -10, is jointly organised by the Higher Education Ministry and Universiti Malaya.
The exposition themed “Driving research innovation towards value creation,” would be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).
It would see a total of over 500 exhibits, from 19 public universities (IPTA) and three private institutions (IPTS) of higher learning.
From left: UM deputy vice chancellor (Research and Development) Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Jainul Maah, Higher Education Ministry planning and excellence department director Prof Dr Mohd Jailani Mohd Nor, Prof Radin Umar, Prof Dr Ghauth and PECIPTA 2009 committee chairperson (university level) Prof Dr Rosmawati Mohamed.
At a press conference recently, Higher Education Ministry director-general Prof Datuk Radin Umar Radin Sohadi said that the ministry already had plans to look into the details of these inventions.
One of the ways to do so, he added, was through expositions like PECIPTA.
The focus of this exposition is to showcase the research and development (R&D) works that have been done, and encourage the commercialisation of the products featured and hope to attract not only local visitors, but more foreign visitors, as this event is aimed to expose the level of research and output that has been done by Malaysian universities.The research capability of Malaysian universities is comparable to that of international standards. Over 30,000 visitors in the previous PECIPTA event, and this year, hope to see more visitors.There will also be a competition to spice up the event.