KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (Bernama) -- The Australian High Commission in Malaysia has launched the Australia Awards-Malaysia Semester Programme, a new scholarship initiative aimed at enabling more Malaysian students to pursue part of their studies in Australia.
Australia’s Assistant Minister for International Education Julian Hill, who officiated the programme, said it reflected Australia’s long-term commitment to deepening people-to-people links with Malaysia by giving more young Malaysians the opportunity to experience life and study in Australia while building lifelong connections between the two countries.
Also present were Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Danielle Heinecke, MARA Chairman Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, senior representatives from Australian universities, students and alumni.
"Over half a million Malaysians have studied in Australia. Most people return home, but we hope they take that little bit of Australia home with them for the rest of their lives and become a human bridge between our two countries," he said in his speech.
Hill said those personal connections had contributed to stronger trade ties, economic cooperation and enduring bilateral relations, adding that education had underpinned the Australia-Malaysia partnership across generations.
"It is important, though, to Australia that these things are two-way," he said, expressing hope that more Australian students would also choose to study at Australian university branch campuses in Malaysia through initiatives such as the New Colombo Plan and semester exchange programmes.
He said Australian universities in Malaysia were not merely teaching institutions but also centres of research capable of generating new knowledge and fostering collaboration on shared challenges, including medical science, clean energy, mining and agriculture.
"We want academics who can work on shared problems between Australia and Malaysia, be that in medical science, clean energy, mining, agriculture and all the challenges we grapple with together," he said.
Describing the new scholarship programme as an innovative initiative by the Australian High Commission and partner universities, Hill said it represented an even more effective way of “spending Australian taxpayer dollars” by enabling more young people from both countries to understand one another through education.
Hill said the programme would also contribute to Australia’s broader strategy of strengthening economic and people-to-people engagement with Southeast Asia while ensuring that financial hardship would not prevent talented students from accessing international education.
Hill said the inaugural cohort of 16 Malaysian students under the Australia Awards–Malaysia Semester Programme had already begun their studies in Australia after departing earlier this year for the July intake, the pilot programme’s first.
On the programme’s future, he said the Australian government had committed funding for an initial four-year period in line with its budget cycle, while expressing hope that the initiative would eventually become a long-term programme.
According to the Australian High Commission, the pilot programme provides financial support for undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled at Australian branch campuses in Malaysia to study in Australia for up to two semesters, covering international travel, accommodation, living expenses, visas, insurance and other related costs.
The participating institutions currently comprise Curtin University Malaysia, Monash University Malaysia and the University of Wollongong Malaysia, while all four Australian university branch campuses in Malaysia, including Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, have been invited to participate in the pilot programme, which commenced in July this year.
-- BERNAMA