Bandung, October 30, 2025 – The Strategic Meeting of the Council of Public University Education Deans (MEDC) and the Benchmarking Visit to Indonesia were successfully held from October 27 to 30, 2025, with key destinations in Jakarta and Bandung.
This four-day, three-night program brings together deans and faculty representatives from public universities in Malaysia with the objective of strengthening international relations in the field of higher education thru academic collaboration, research, and professional development with leading educational institutions in Indonesia. Among the public universities in Malaysia involved in this visit are UPM, UiTM, UIAM, UKM, UMS, UNIMAS, UniSZA, UTM, USIM, UTHM, USM, and UM.
The delegation is led by Prof. Madya Dr. Wan Marzuki Wan Jaafar, Chairman of MEDC and Dean of the Faculty of Educational Studies.
This visit includes official visits to the Jakarta Business School, UNESCO Jakarta, Universitas Negeri Jakarta (UNJ), and Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) in Bandung.
At Jakarta Business School, the MEDC delegation was hosted by Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Nordin Kardi, President of Jakarta Business School, who also shared strategic insights on educational leadership, learning innovation, and management models based on academic entrepreneurship.
This program also received an extremely encouraging response from the universities and institutions visited, thus opening a new chapter in Malaysia-Indonesia academic relations.
Among the strategic cooperation proposals discussed were: the Indonesia-Malaysia Academic Forum as a platform for regional scientific discourse, the exchange of academic and professional expertise between lecturers from both countries, research collaboration and joint funding, with a focus on matching grants and joint publications, joint supervision of graduate students and the appointment of external examiners, student and staff mobility programs, including dual degree programs and the appointment of adjunct professors.
This event has a positive impact on the internationalization of higher education, strengthens the reputation of Malaysian public universities on the global stage, and fosters regional synergy in developing the quality of education and research.
According to Prof. Madya Dr. Wan Marzuki Wan Jaafar, this visit serves as proof of the continued commitment of Malaysian public universities to strengthen the country's global education standing. Initiatives like this not only strengthen bilateral relations between Malaysia and Indonesia but also open up high-impact regional collaboration opportunities in research, academic innovation, and expertise development.
MEDC will continue to play an important role as a coordination platform connecting Malaysian public universities with international strategic partners, in line with the Ministry of Higher Education's aspiration to strengthen the internationalization of the country's higher education," he explained.
The program concludes with an official visit to the Indonesian University of Education (UPI) in Bandung before the delegation returns home on October 30, 2025.