Malaysian higher education was shocked last week by news that the British government has blocked ‘UK degrees’ issued by a “UK university” in Malaysia.
The new Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act denies priority places for 850 Malaysian medical graduates from a UK franchise campus, Newcastle University Medical Malaysia (NUMed) and places them on a waiting list.
For the first time the British government has formally stated that “UK degrees” from outside of the United Kingdom are not the same as the degrees gained from studying in the United Kingdom.
This effectively ends the marketing claims of UK franchise universities that their degrees are equivalent to UK qualifications and follows an investigation by the ministry of higher education (MOHE) and the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) into unaccredited certificates sold by the UK Chartered Management Institute through Malaysian university partners.
UK health secretary and possible prime minister candidate Wesley Streeting signalled the British government’s position when he described overseas medical campuses as “commercial ventures” and said prioritising their students would, “undermine sustainable workforce planning” in the United Kingdom.
UK franchise campuses in Malaysia had ample opportunity to raise concerns. Three UK ministers visited Malaysia last year before the change in the law including foreign secretary David Lammy, Asean-Indo-Pacific minister Catherine West and skills minister Jacqui Smith, who met with all of the UK franchise campus heads.
If the leaders of the UK franchises were consulted, they have proved ineffective. If they were not, they have proved irrelevant.
In a brief, dismissive statement to the online medical news portal Code Blue, the British High Commission in Malaysia said “the UK will continue to promote UK education in Malaysia”.
This is mainly commercial promotion driven by the Department for Business and Trade helping UK universities to make billions each year.
There were around 43,000 Malaysians on UK transnational education programmes last year with an estimated revenue of RM5 billion. The five UK franchise campuses in Malaysia have around 8,500 students and RM450 million to RM500 million in revenue per year.
The change has not just impacted medical students or UK franchises, it has sent shockwaves through international education in Malaysia as a whole, raising questions about the value of degrees and the level of protection international students get in Malaysia.
Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said last week the government would absorb all 850 NUMed’s students into housemanship training in Malaysia. His office later clarified that international NUMed graduates are not eligible due to citizenship restrictions from the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC).
While this is a lifeline for local students, international graduates are still stranded because this “solution” does not cover them. It sends a clear message to international students that they cannot rely on protection from the Malaysian government if their study programmes turn sour.
A representative of the NUMed students said “we always understood the local restrictions in Malaysia, which is why international students came to NUMed for a promised UK pathway”.
“Now that the UK has retroactively changed the rules mid-cycle, we have been left with an ‘equivalent’ degree but aren’t accepted in the country we’ve received it from.
“We’ve done everything right, yet we are facing an unplanned gap year with no professional home.”
An expat parent of a NUMed student suggested that the UK government should have ‘grandfathered’ the change so at least those currently enrolled did not have the rule change imposed on them. She now wonders how NUMed will entice future batches of students.
This is the biggest question facing NUMed and could potentially lead to its closure. That would impact the other UK franchises and twinning programmes, devastating Malaysia’s ambitions to be an international student hub.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.