KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 (Bernama) — Eleven Immigration Department officers have been placed at the Integrated One Stop Centres of the Education Malaysia Global Service (EMGS) beginning Monday in a move to improve service to international students at private higher learning institutions.

Second Education Minister, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said before this, the department did not station its officers at the EMGS but managed the records of the foreign students at the department’s office.

He said the EMGS, which began operations last year, received complaints, including of confusion, when applications for permits were submitted at the one-stop centres because there were no immigration officers.

“The changes and improvement in the EMGS will hopefully be for the good when 11 immigration officers are placed there to facilitate the processing of applications for international student pass.

“Besides that, the EMGS has been asked to work with private institutions on improvements which must be done from time to time to ensure that the entry of international students into our country is maintained and improved,” he told reporters after visiting the EMGS Integrated One-Stop centre in Kuala Lumpur, Monday.

Also present were the Education Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Dr Madinah Mohamad, Second Secretary-General Datuk Seri Dr Zaini Ujang, Deputy Director (Private) Department of Higher Education Datuk Prof Dr Roziah Omar and Immigration Department’s Deputy Director General (Management), Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman.

Idris said for the whole of 2013, the EMGS processed almost 30,000 applications from international students for entry into the country.

He said private institutions were constantly in contact with the EMGS and provided accurate information about their international students to avoid abuse of student passes.

“The EMGS now has a tracking system, so it is able to find out where the students are and what courses they registered and in which private institution. So the question of abuse no longer arises.

“Action will be taken against any private institution which does not provide the complete information of their international students to the EMGS,” he said.

He said, to date there were 11,200 international students in all the public and private institutions in the country.

“For now, the EMGS is only focused on the international students who are in private institutions but it will be expanded to include those in the public sector too,” he said

The EMGS which is based in Menara TA One, Jalan P. Ramlee and started operations on Feb 4, 2013, introduced the ‘Student Application and Registration System’ (STARS) application which could be used by all private institutions.

The institutions were integrated with the system in the immigration department to help process the applications for international student passes.

Based on records, the capacity of minimum daily processing rate by the EMGS was 200.

Besides being a centre for the collection of data of international students, the EMGS also managed health checks and health insurance packages for them.

–BERNAMA