On 13 April 2017, H.E. Dato Roslan Tan Sri Abdul Rahman, Ambassador of Malaysia to the Republic of Azerbaijan paid a courtesy visit to Mr Jeyhun Bayramov, Deputy Minister of Education of Azerbaijan. He was accompanied by Professor Dato’ Dr Azanam Shah Hashim, Deputy President of the University Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sairul Izwan Safie, Dean of Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology.
The Deputy Minister was accompanied by Mr Tural Ahmadov, Head of International Relations Division and Mr Yagub Piriyev, Deputy Chief of Staff. Present with the Ambassador were also Mr Harris Alwi, Counsellor and Ms Movlana Mammadzada, Translator of the Embassy. The Deputy Minister welcomed the delegation to Azerbaijan and to the Ministry. The Ambassador thanked Mr Bayramov for receiving the delegation and briefly explained on the establishment of the Embassy in Azerbaijan. He stated that the cooperation between the two countries is expanding. The countries had several high level visits and the Prime Minister of Malaysia was present at the Opening Ceremony of the Embassy in Baku in 2014. The two countries have established the Interparliamentary Friendship Group. The Ambassador further talked about the UniKL’s purpose of the visit to Azerbaijan.
Deputy President of UniKL continued on by briefly explaining about the University of Kuala Lumpur. Other than being a technical university, UniKL has also business and medical schools. The Professor informed the Deputy Minister on the newly established cooperation between the UniKL and universities of Azerbaijan. UniKL has signed a MoU with the Baku Higher Oil School and agreed on exchanging students from September, 2017. UniKL will also sign MoU with the Khazar University.
Mr Bayramov talked about the importance of the cooperation between the universities of the two countries. Exchange of students, as a first step, would benefit in understanding each other’s education system. It can further be extended to double degree and joint degree programs. Talking on the education in Azerbaijan, Mr Bayramov briefed about the State Scholarship program of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has sent 6500+ students abroad through the State Scholarship Program and 1500 of them are already back and have an academic career in Azerbaijan. The State Scholarship program lasted from 2007-2015. He also gave information about newly established SABAH groups, which joins the talented students of the universities. It aims at creating a new and different environment in higher education system and also to increase the quality of education. Currently, the Ministry is considering to send students to the foreign universities for Master’s degree and Doctoral Programs.
The Meeting lasted for forty minutes in a very friendly and cordial manner.
