Inaugural Australia-Malaysia 'Towards 2020' Scholarship recipients
Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, was pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of Undergraduate Scholarships and Executive Awards under the new Australia-Malaysia ‘Towards 2020’ Scholarship Program.
Designed to support Malaysia’s economic reform agenda, the ‘Towards 2020’ Undergraduate Scholarships will assist Malaysian undergraduates to study at Australian universities located in Malaysia.
The Executive Awards will support Malaysian civil servants to undertake professional development opportunities in Australia.
The five-year Scholarship Program will build further on the strong people-to-people links that form the foundation of the Australia-Malaysia relationship.
The two inaugural Undergraduate Scholarship recipients are:
• Mrs Nastassia binti Affendi, who will study a Bachelor of Commerce at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, and
• Mr Lee Siang Hin, who will study a Bachelor of Engineering at Monash University Malaysia.
The two inaugural Executive Award recipients are:
• Dr Masria binti Mustafa, who will attend conferences and undertake courses related to traffic management and crash investigations, and
• Mr Mohd Ridzwan Shahabudin, who will attend the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s International Participation in Graduate Training Program.
The ‘Towards 2020’ Scholarship Program recipients will add to the already large numbers of Malaysian alumni – more than 300,000 – from Australian institutions.
The New Colombo Plan, a signature Australian Government initiative to send Australian students to study at universities in the region, is currently in the pilot phase. From 2015, Ms Bishop hopes that Malaysia will join the New Colombo Plan so that generations of Australian students will undertake study and internships across the Indo-Pacific region.