新興国マレーシアにおける高等教育機関の留学生受け入れ動機

―留学生および大学教職員の視点に着目して―

抄録

  The share of international students in countries traditionally accepting them has decreased, while that of newly accepting Asian countries is on the rise, such as China, Singapore and Malaysia. Malaysia accepted more than 100,000 international students in 2015. In recent times, the number of students from the Middle East and African countries, such as from Nigeria, Yemen, Libya, or Saudi Arabia has increased drastically.

  According to previous studies, there are four general reasons for a country to accept international students: to increase mutual understanding between countries, to generate revenue for the higher education sector, to build capacity, and to import skilled migration. Emerging countries that are developing an education hub are often considered to be looking to generate revenue rather than to increase mutual understanding. Malaysian higher education institutions impose a higher tuition fee on international students than on the local students, but the difference is not as large as that of traditional English-speaking countries. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to reveal the characteristics of the rationale adopted by Malaysian higher education institutions when compared with the more traditionally sought-after Western countries. A literature survey and interview sessions with the staff and international students in Malaysian higher education institutions were conducted for this purpose.

  In Malaysia, domestic opportunities for higher education have long been constrained by the limited capacity of its institutions and affirmative action in support of the majority Malay people. However, industrialization led to an acute shortage of skilled human resources and as studying abroad became unaffordable due to the financial crisis of the late 1990s, opportunities for higher education were necessarily widened by introducing transnational programs through collaboration with Western higher education institutions. This eventually increased the number of international students in Malaysia who were seeking cheaper Western degrees. Furthermore, Malaysian higher education institutions began not only accepting branch campuses or foreign programs from Western countries, but also entered into the least developed countries like CLMV (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam), South Asia, or African countries by establishing branch campuses or franchising their own education programs. The mobility of students, education programs, and education institutions are more rapid and dynamic now than ever before. Private higher education institutions have become prominent after being approved to confer degrees in 1996 by a legal amendment.

  This paper examines the rationale behind Malaysian higher education institutions accepting international students. It employs a framework of stakeholder perspectives on cross-border education from a previous study, namely, increased access to higher education, cost/income, selection of courses and programs, language/cultural and safety aspects, quality, recognition of qualification, and reputation and profile. The specific motivation and the steps taken by Malaysian higher education institutions to accept international students were revealed as the following: (1) to offer high quality education and education in English, which are infrequently available in the countries where the international students come from; (2) to generate income by accepting international students who are attracted to low tuition fees and cost of living; (3) to offer niche education programs using comparative advantages wherein foreign students can easily apply what they have learned from Malaysian universities rather than from Western institutions to their home countries; (4) to build a multi-cultural classroom environment and provide support for international students in language and basic (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)