Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh said this would prevent the likelihood of overstaying and other disciplinary issues among international students in Malaysia.

He said it was compulsory for local institutions to send their status reports to EMGS or risk facing disciplinary action.

EMGS has been named as the one-stop-centre for international student management and services.

It provides the option for international students to apply online directly for their student passes.

“This choice given to international students to apply online for their student pass gives them better control over their applications.

“It may result in a faster application turnaround time,” Idris said during a press conference at the Axis Eureka Student Service Centre in Cyberjaya, today.

He said the centre had demonstrated how the cooperation between EMGS and the Immigration Department’s Student Pass Unit had resulted in mutual success in managing international students.

Idris also remarked that Malaysia had 151,979 international students in 2015.

He said 122,061 of these students were enrolled in institutions of higher learning, which was a 12 per cent increase compared with 2014.