UMK International of today started infantry as Unit of International Affairs in July 2012 under the governance of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and International) Office. With the increasing responsibilities, heightened importance and rising number of international students in the University from more than twenty different countries, the Unit of International Affairs matured to become UMK International Office (UMK-IO) in 2013 and was later rebranded to becoming Centre of International and Marketing (CIM) in 2019.
To be correspondent and comparable to other public universities international office, appointment of Regional Representatives (Asia, Africa and Europe) was made amongst academic expatriates. This initiative gives rise to the birth of UMK International on 19 November 2019, with a vision of becoming a referred center in managing international affairs, promoting global partnerships and facilitating international education.
Besides having international student recruitment as our prevalent focus, UMK International promotes global partnerships between UMK and universities or institutes abroad. Notably, sturdy support is continually extended to students and staff mobility which recurrently upsurge the University’s visibility and international reputation. Numerous flagship programs and in-house initiatives are proceeding to strengthen the roles of UMK International and most importantly, to have internationalisation institutionalised within UMK in a sustaining manner.
‘Ambassadorial Talk Series’ and ‘Ambassadorial Hi-Tea’ are obligatory annual events which enable the University work closely with foreign diplomats; ‘Students Referral Program’ inspires international students and international alumni to be recruiting proxies apart from having world recognized registered agents as our associates; ‘Hi-Five Summer Camp’ is designated as the focal mobility program which climaxes the strengths of the Faculties exposing participants to six different trails namely Heritage, Innovation, Food, Industry, Veterinary and Earth Sciences, in addition to championing other eminent and decade-long mobility program like ‘Social Enterprise for Economic Development’ (SEED), hailed as the best Student-Driven Sustainability Project of the Year by Asia Pacific Triple E Awards 2020.
Lastly, ‘International Connect’ and ‘International Day’ are programs which are imperative in bridging the cooperation between UMK International and various stakeholders which include Ministry of Education, Education Malaysia Global Services, faculties’ internationalisation coordinators, international students, directors/ personnel of local and global international offices and global community at large.
