What is Twinning Degree Programme? In the early 1980s, the Malay government started the Twinning Degree Programme in educational cooperation with universities of the Commonwealth. The programme allows students to enter a university in Malaysia and study there for a year or two years and then study a university in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand for a year or two years to receive a degree from the university in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. The programme gradually grew in the number of partner schools to include universities in North America. It has recently introduced a system of allowing students to study in Malaysia for three years and receive a degree from a foreign school. In the system, students get admitted in a university in Malaysia and graduate from a foreign university. There are five degree combinations including 2+1, 1+2, 1+3, 3+1, and 3+0. Students can pay relatively lower tuitions. The programme share common features with IGC's program, which allows students to study on the home campus for a year and have diverse cultural experiences.
In the Twinning Degree Programme, students receive a final degree from a foreign university, which means that they should meet the entrance requirements of universities in the Commonwealth. Students need to study at A-level or IB, which costs a lot and is demanding for students with deficient English skills. Students can apply for the programme only after completing the one-year foundation course at a Malay university. There are five nations supporting this system including Australia, Egypt, India, the U.K. and the U.S.A.
In Australia, five schools support the programme including University of Tasmania, Curtin University of Technology, RMIT University, University of Newcastle, and University of Ballarat. In Egypt, Universiti Al-Azhar supports Ijazah Sarjana Muda Al-Syariah and Ijazah Sarjana Muda Usuluddin. In India, Manipal Academy of Higher Education participates in the programme. In the U.K., there are seven partner schools including Oxford Brookes University, Northumbria University, University of East London, University of Birmingham, University of Sheffield, University of the West of England, and University of Reading. In the U.S.A., California State Polytechnic University, Pomona supports the programme.
The programme is very similar to IGC in that it allows students to choose a school in various nations and receive a degree there, but IGC is different from the programme by providing students with ample opportunities to have direct exchanges with students of diverse nationalities and experience differences in culture and thoughts among different nations while attending the school on the campus. Taking advantage of its strengths, IGC will serve as a platform to satisfy international students' interest in the Korean Wave and Korean culture and bring about numerous effects including the cultivation of global citizenship, credit exchanges with other schools, and formation of a global human resource network based on joint educational programs in cooperation with foreign schools.
