By Asmahanim Amir
Pictures by Abd Raai Osman and Shahiddan Saidi

BANGI, 8 November 2017 – All public university graduates will be required to achieve the B2 level (fluent) in English Language, as stipulated by the Common European Frame Work of References for Language (CEFR) scale, in four years to come.

Minister of Higher Education, Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh is positive that the target can be achieved because the ministry has developed the Malaysia English Assessment (MEA), a new method of English language assessment, which was implemented last September at all public universities.

“The interesting thing is that assessment for the MEA will be absorbed in all English compulsory courses, pending the approval of each university’s Senate,” he said at the Launch of MEA, in UKM, recently.

He said MEA will bring a paradigm shift in English language assessment and will change the higher education system in this country.

He said MEA consists of two components MEA 1 and MEA 2.

MEA 1 encompasses ongoing assessments which includes listening, reading, writing and speaking.

Meanwhile MEA 2 includes assessment of performance in the actual situation ahead when they enter employment through the extra-curricular and co-curricular activities, interdisciplinary collaboration, online resources, community engagement, industry-academia collaboration and global engagement.

Also present to the ceremony was Higher Education Deputy Minister , Datuk Dr Mary Yap Kain Ching, Higher Education Ministrey (MOHE) Secretary General, Tan Sri Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur, Higher Eucation Department Director General, Datin Paduka Ir Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir and UKM Vice-Chancellor of UKM, Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali.