Higher Education Minister Idris Jusoh does not see the need to send students abroad especially since there are many reputable universities in the country.

"If you look at it, there's no reason why we should be sending (students) abroad when our research universities, and we have five - Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) - are among the top one percent in the world.

"Often, when we send students abroad, they are not being sent to the top one percent in the world. So there's no reason for us to be spending four times more when we can get our students to do their studies here," he said during a press conference at Mahsa University's Bandar Saujana Putra campus today.

Idris was responding to a question on the need to provide quality education to ensure that students do not need to go abroad for their studies.

Citing the country's improving education standards, this is the reason why he believes that a local university may stand a chance to be in the top 100 universities in the world by 2020.

"By 2050, we might have a Malaysian university among the world's top 20, if not two.

"If universities are good, there is no reason to leave the country," he added.

Although admitting that some students need to be provided with education overseas, Idris said there was "no good reason to spend so much money outside" in light of the improving quality of local education.

No details on UM's probe

Last year, the Public Service Department reduced the number of scholarships disbursed for students who pursued degrees abroad.

On another matter, Idris said he has not been briefed by UM on the probe into allegations that a lecturer at the university had ridiculed Indian students.

"They (the university) are autonomous . If you ask me (on) any lecturers I won't have time to look into this.

"Universities have been given the autonomy to make decisions on their own," he said, stressing that there was no need for the ministry to interfere.

"But you always have in mind that we do interfere. That's the problem all the time. It's just your perception rather than the reality.

"See you asked me the question I don't even know what you're talking about," he said.

UM had formed the independent panel to investigate the matter after a Facebook posting which went viral alleged that a lecturer had scolded Indian students who sat next to each other in a class and asked them to change seats, after claiming Indians are prone to "copy and plagiarise assignments".