Should Malaysia Become a Global Education Hub?

The Malaysia Higher Education Blueprint 2026–2035 (MHEB 2026–2035), released in January 2026, aims to establish Malaysia as a global education hub, known for “academic excellence, impactful research and international collaborations”. The blueprint seeks to “attract diverse talent” and “solidify Malaysia’s reputation as a competitive and trusted leader in the global higher education ecosystem”. Its targets include enrolling 500,000 international students by 2035 (a more than threefold increase from 159,138 students in 2025), alongside to-be-established annual targets for global rankings, quality assurance, international accreditation, transnational education programmes and graduate employment.

The MHEB 2026–2035 is ambitious and forward-looking. It lends aspirational fuel to the ongoing development and international recognition of Malaysia’s higher education system. Through its detailed account of current progress and planned initiatives, MHEB centres on the question of how Malaysia can become a global education hub. However, there is an important question to consider: Should Malaysia focus on strengthening its position as a regional education hub for now?

In focusing on becoming a global education hub at this time, Malaysia might have overlooked its competitive advantage of being a regional education hub. Rather than trying to catch up with established global education hubs, Malaysia should consolidate its strongest competitive niche before pursuing broader global ambitions at this stage. This strategy is also in line with the growing trend of intra-regional student mobility, including movements within ASEAN and Asia as well as between Global South countries.

Global education hubs such as the US and UK are characterised by international reputation (including having highly ranked universities in global rankings), hosting a large share of international students from diverse countries, and established education-to-immigration pathways for post-study employment and/or longer-term residence. In short, they have the infrastructure to attract international students worldwide and retain them in the domestic labour market post-graduation. By contrast, regional education hubs are characterised by regional reputation, with international students mainly from within the region. They may operate more as a stepping stone for students seeking further study outside the region, especially through transnational education programmes linked to institutions in established global education hubs.

In the QS World University Rankings (QS WUR) 2027, established global hubs such as the US has 25 universities in the top 100 tier. Australia has 10 and the UK has 16. In comparison, Malaysia only has one, the University of Malaya (the country’s flagship university), which is ranked 56th. Although 24 Malaysian universities have entered the QS WUR since 2016, only four are in the top 101–250 tier, while the remaining are in the 501–1500 tier. In other words, Malaysia is not directly comparable with established global hubs in terms of performance in international university rankings.

Malaysia should leverage its strength as a regional study destination and capitalise on the growing regional student mobility trend, rather than directly competing with established global education hubs.

In 2023, the global distribution of internationally mobile students was predominantly centred in US (14.0 per cent), the UK (11.0 per cent), Australia (6.8 per cent), Germany (6.2 per cent) and Canada (5.7 per cent). Although Malaysia was within the top 15 host countries globally, it hosted only 1.6 per cent of the international student population — a far cry from these established global hubs. Furthermore, these countries attract students from different continents (the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australasia and Europe). By contrast, Malaysia’s international students predominantly originate from within the region (Southeast Asia and wider Asia).

A major draw of global education hubs is the possibility for post-study employment and/or permanent residence in the host country. Australia, the UK and the US have well-established post-study visa schemes, diverse skilled migration systems as well as permanent residence and naturalisation pathways. By contrast, Malaysia’s Graduate Pass was only introduced in December 2023 and remains limited to certain countries. Furthermore, foreigners’ access to permanent residence and citizenship in Malaysia remains highly restricted, even for skilled labour migrants. Hence, Malaysia cannot directly compete with the established global hubs in terms of existing infrastructure for talent retention.

Studies have shown that following the Covid-19 pandemic, students prefer to study regionally rather than internationally due to cost, geopolitical, border control and future migration considerations. In March 2026, Times Higher Education released its pilot regional ranking of universities in Southeast Asia. It has been noted that the availability of transnational education offerings within the region is a major draw for Southeast Asian students seeking to study within the region. These developments signal a growing market trend towards a regional rather than an international focus in higher education development and study mobility.

Relatively young populations, an emerging middle-class and tertiary education consumers from countries in the region — particularly Southeast and South Asia — will drive the near-future demand for overseas education. In this context, Malaysia should leverage its strength as a regional study destination and capitalise on the growing regional student mobility trend, rather than directly competing with established global education hubs. Focusing on becoming a regional hub first could be a laudable waypoint to becoming a global one in the longer-term.

Malaysia’s policy priorities include recruiting regional students, expanding regional scholarship schemes, solidifying regional mutual recognition of qualifications (the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Agreement) and strengthening regional graduate mobility pathways. These efforts could equally meet Malaysia’s fundamental aim of attracting and benefiting from regional talents with context-relevant knowledge, skills and resources, in line with the macroeconomic and human capital development aims articulated in the Thirteenth Malaysia Plan (2026–2030).

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