The National University of Malaysia (UKM) will start Persian language courses in the near future, according to Riza Atigh Abdullah, Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
“In cooperation with Iran’s East Asia Scientific Counselor’s Office, Persian language will be taught in the UKM from September,” he said at a seminar on ‘Strengthening Iran-Malaysia Research Cooperation in Higher Education’, IRNA reported.
The one-day event held last week in Kuala Lumpur in cooperation with the UKM was attended by Malaysian and Iranian university officials.
The decision is part of Malaysia’s plans to develop its mutual cooperation with Iranian universities in several areas, Atigh added.
Iran’s scientific advisor in East Asia, Abbas Qanbari Baghestan, also present at the seminar, said “So far two big Malaysian universities have expressed interest in introducing Persian language among their academic courses.”
He also stressed that promoting the language is one of the main goals the scientific advisory board is seriously pursuing.
UKM is one of five research universities in Malaysia. It was ranked 259th in the world by QS World University Rankings in 2014. It is ranked 98th in the 100 best new universities established globally in the last 50 years.
There are 17,500 undergraduate students enrolled, and 5,105 postgraduate students of which 1,368 are foreign students from 35 countries including the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“There are over 250 students and 10 instructors from Iran,” said Atigh, noting that launching the course would be a good start for expanding the horizons of cooperation between the two nations.
Together with Indonesia, China, Nigeria, and Yemen, Iran has the highest number of foreign students in Malaysia.
According to Baghestan, there are nearly 5,000 Iranian students in Malaysian educational centers, 85% of whom are studying at post-graduate levels in engineering, information technology, business, and basic sciences. On average, 600 new students join the academic stream annually.
“Given their scientific potential and success, the Iranian students also receive funds from research departments of Malaysian academic centers.
