JAPANESE ASSOCIATE DEGREE

HISTORY  

DPPT Project known as the 'Higher Education Loan Fund Project (HELP) is a Japanese Higher Education Project by the Government of Malaysia which was implemented under the Look East Policy inspired by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed in 1983.

Yayasan Pelajaran MARA, was appointed as the implementing agency for the HELP Project in 1993. HELP project was partly funded by the Government of Malaysia through the Project Management Grants and also loans from the Government of Japan.

The main objective is to manage and implement higher education and scholarship for Degree, Masters and PhD in engineering courses at Japan Universities to produce scientist and engineers. It is hoped that Bumiputera engineers and scientist will then take the lead in industrial, research and development and design technology in the country.

HELP I was born after the establishment of first loan package agreement between Malaysia and Japan signed on 28th May 1992. The successful of the implementation of HELP I, opened the door to the second package of loan agreement, known as HELP II in April 1999, followed by the third package of loan agreement, HELP III which began in January 2005. In implementing the three projects, YPM has established cooperation with 15 japanese universities.

Project	Period	Program	Scholarship
HELP I	1993 - 2005	Japanese Matriculation Center (JMC)	Degree
HELP II	1999 - 2009	Japanese Associate Degree (JAD)	Degree, Master
HELP III	2005 - 2015	Japanese Associate Degree (JAD)	Degree, Master, PhD
MJHEP	2011 - 2022	Japanese Associate Degree (JAD)	Degree, Master, PhD

A total of 1256 students enrolled for the 3 projects for degree, Bachelor and Master Doctorate (PhD) programmes. Of the total, 827 have since graduated and 356 still pursuing their studies. The students enrolled in this projects are being exposed exclusively in Japanese living cultures and their high technologies. Therefore many graduates are currently working with mega engineering company in Malaysia and Japan.

Achivement oh HELP project:

1. HELP projects have produced a total of 827 graduated engineers who are working in various sectors.
2. Created Japanese fast matriculation curriculum HELP I.
3. Created 2+3 (2 year - Malaysia, 3 year - Japan) undergraduate twinning program curriculum / syllabus of engineering in HELP II and 3 + 2 (3 year - Malaysia, 2 year Japan) undergraduate  twinning program curriculum / syllabus of engineering diploma in HELP III.
4. The 1st Japan Education Hub in Malaysia (Japan Univ outside Japan with Japanese Medium Engineering)