ITALIAN-MALAYSIAN CULTURAL AND UNIVERSITY COOPERATION
1. The signing of the Cultural Agreement between Malaysia and Italy on 17 February 1990 constitutes the first impulse towards the intensification of cultural relations between the two Countries. The main follow-ups were the reactivation of the Cultural Institute in Kuala Lumpur (“frozen” in 1994), which re-enforced major continuity to our efforts in this sector, and the signing of the programme related to the Agreement of 1990.
2. Types of cultural and university cooperation:
a) Visiting lecturers: since the academic year 2000-2001 -beginning with the Bachelor programme in Italian Language by the Faculty of Language and Linguistics of University Malaya- the Italian Government provided University Malaya with 2 visiting lecturers. At the present only one lecturer is appointed for the academic year 2007-2008.
b) Interuniversity cooperation:
I) Memorandum of Understanding between University La Sapienza of Rome and University Teknologi MARA located in Shah Alam
II) Memorandum of Understanding between University La Sapienza of Rome and the Asia-Europe Institute of University Malaya
III) Research cooperation between professors of University Malaya and University of Florence (Entomology and Biology) and University of Siena (Molecular Medicine)
IV) Programme of exchange between the Faculty of Built Environment of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor Baru and the Faculty of Architecture of University of Bologna
V) Cooperation between the Faculty of Language and Linguistics of University Malaya and the University of Venice (Linguistics and Didactics of Italian).
c) In 1999 the programme of scholarships –50 month grants- offered by the Italian Government to Malaysian citizens for the amount of Euros 30.987 began. Between 1999 and 2007 the following scholarships were awarded:
2009 -2010 9 scholarships
2008 -2009 13 scholarships
2007-2008 15 scholarships
2006-2007 21 scholarships (90 months)
2005-2006 28 scholarships
2003-2004 15 scholarships
2002-2003 12 scholarships
2001-2002 8 scholarships
2000-2001 20 scholarships
1999-2000 22 scholarships