KOTA KINABALU: The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is seeking stronger collaborations with Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to develop and provide quality tertiary education for its people.
Its Vice-Minister of Education, Abel Da Costa Freitas Ximenes, led a delegation to visit UMS yesterday, where they met with deans and heads of faculty and departments of the university to discuss potential collaborative programmes.
This was a return visit by the Timor-Leste government following a visit by UMS delegation to Dili in February to strengthen ties with related ministries and agencies in the Republic.
UMS vice chancellor, in his welcoming remarks at the Public Lecture by Ximenes that was held in conjunction with the visit, said UMS had established ties with Timor-Leste since 2012, just three years after its independence.
He said several academicians from UMS were appointed into a technical committee set up by the Malaysian government to help the Instituto De Estudos Diplomatics (Diplomatic Research Institute) of Timor-Leste’s Foreign Affairs and Collaborations Ministry.
The institute was tasked with developing a curriculum structure and content for Timor-Leste’s diplomatic training programme.
“Since then, UMS has taken the initiative to make Timor-Leste one of its strategic partner countries. To show our commitment, we have set up a UMS-Timor Leste Communication Unit in January 2014 to facilitate collaboration with the Republic,” he said.
The text of his speech was delivered by Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Affairs and Alumni), Associate Professor Dr Ismail Ali, who represented him at the programme.
Timor-Leste through its Universidad Nacional Timor Lorosa signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Higher Learning Malaysia in April 2014, during the visit of its Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao.
UMS is also the first university in Malaysia to award honorary doctorate to Xanana in recognition of his massive contributions to Timor-Leste’s struggle for independence and later in setting in place a stable leadership and administration for the country.
“The MoU signed in 2014 has resulted in 15 students from Timor-Leste being sent by the Ministry of Petroleum to continue their diploma studies in UMS in September of the same year. Eight of them are studying Process Engineering (Oil and Gas Operation) and the rest are doing Instrumentation Engineering (Oil and Gas).
“Both these programmes were prepared by experts at our Engineering Faculty specifically to meet the special needs of Timor-Leste,” said Harun.
UMS is expected to receive the second group of 20 students from the country to study in several diploma programmes.
Harun said he hoped that more students from Timor-Leste would study in UMS degree as well as post graduate levels, not just in oil and gas but also in other fields.
Moving forward, he said potential collaborations had been identified in teaching and learning, research and innovation, staff and students mobility in higher education, as well as training and capacity building in oil and gas, education, marine science, eco-tourism, rural health and medicine, and language.
Ximenes, in his talk, touched on the history, challenges and vision of Timor-Leste and expressed the hope that UMS and the Malaysian government will continue assisting the country to move forward.
Timor-Leste had just recently gained its independence from Indonesia which invaded the territory in 1975.
Indonesia, with the backing from international communities, invaded the territory over fears that Timor-Leste would turn into a communist country under the leadership of the Revolutionary Front for the Independence of Timor-Leste (FRETILIN).
The territory was previously a Portuguese colony since 1702, before FRETILIN proclaimed independence following the democratic revolution in 1974 in Portugal which led to gradual independence of its former colonies.
Timor-Leste gained independence and was accepted into the UN in 1999.