Central Java Opens the Door to Higher Education Cooperation with Malaysia

Semarang (ANTARA) – The Central Java Provincial Government is opening up opportunities for higher education cooperation with Malaysia, ranging from university access for students to the development of vocational education.

“This gives us an idea of how open Malaysian universities are to students from Indonesia,” said Sunarto, secretary of the Central Java Education Office, in Semarang on Thursday.

He said Malaysian universities were open to Indonesian students, including civil servants wishing to pursue master’s or doctoral degrees.

The opportunities for cooperation were discussed at the 2026 Malaysia Higher Education Strategic Seminar and Exhibition at Wisma Perdamaian in Semarang.

One promising area for development, he said, was cooperation in vocational education. Students at senior and vocational high schools in Central Java could learn about opportunities to develop their skills through polytechnics in Malaysia.

Nearly 300 civil servants from the Central Java Provincial Government took part, including senior and vocational high school headteachers and officials from regional agencies. Participants also included staff working in public welfare and poverty alleviation, as well as the Regional Civil Service Agency, who attended to explore potential partnerships for follow-up.

Malaysia’s Minister Counsellor for Education and director of Education Malaysia Indonesia, Hasnul Faizal Hushin Amri, said the event was part of Malaysia’s efforts to offer broader cooperation with the Central Java Provincial Government, particularly in education.

Malaysia had brought universities not only to promote undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programmes, but also to offer expertise that could be developed jointly in Central Java, he said.

The aim, he added, was for cooperation to go beyond student admissions and expand to education, training, mobility, international community service programmes and educational tourism.

Eight Malaysian universities, both public and private, attended the event alongside a number of education agents.

“It is not only about education programmes, but also about how this expertise can be used jointly for the benefit of the people of Central Java,” he said.

He said Semarang was chosen for the launch because Central Java was considered to have the economic potential and capacity to support the development of cooperation.

Indonesian students are among the largest groups of international students in Malaysia, he said, with around 11,450 currently studying there.