The prime minister said that the government will pump RM2 million annually to a new Ainuddin Wahid Endowment Fund over the next five years to sponsor Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) students pursuing their doctorates.
“Five students each year... from the crème de la crème will be to be attached for six months to a top academic institution, either Oxford, Cambridge, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) or Imperial College,” he said.
The prime minister handed out RM15 million to Chinese schools on Sunday before announcing yesterday a tax-exempted education fund run by corporate tycoons that will channel at least RM100 million a year from gambling profits to vernacular and mission schools.
Najib’s administration has grappled with a brain drain that the prime minister says is a key factor that has kept Malaysia in a “middle-income trap.”
Up to 1.5 million Malaysians are living overseas with many having migrated after pursuing further studies or to give their children access to better education.
His Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) aims to move Malaysia up the value chain and more than double the per capita income to RM48,000 by 2020.
The prime minister was speaking at the launch of Tan Sri Ainuddinn Wahid’s biography.
Ainuddin was appointed principal of the Kuala Lumpur Technical College in 1969 by Najib’s father Tun Abdul Razak Hussein who was prime minister at the time.
During his 20-year tenure, the college was upgraded to the National Institute of Technology in 1972 and then UTM in 1975.
Ainuddin remained as vice-chancellor of the university until 1990.
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