About MACC Scholarships
Launched in 2001, with the first batch of scholarships awarded in 2002, the objective of the Malaysia Australia Colombo Plan Commemoration (MACC) Scholarships is to provide Malaysian and Australian students the opportunity to experience diverse cultures through sponsored education. The MACC is built on the spirit of the Colombo Plan which enabled some 4,000 young Malaysians to study in Australia from the 1950s until the 1980s. The MACC Scholarships take the Colombo Plan a step further by providing a two-way exchange of scholars between Malaysia and Australia. The scholarships are offered to Malaysian and Australian students to undertake their education at universities and institutions of higher learning in Australia and Malaysia respectively.
The MACC Scholarship Program is spearheaded and organised by the Malaysian Australian Alumni Council (MAAC), a national non-for-profit organisation for Malaysian Alumni Associations of Australian Universities and other institutions of higher learning, with the support of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT), Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) and the Australian Department of Education (DoE) all from the Australian High Commission in Malaysia.
Since its inception in 2001, more than 250 students have been awarded the MACC Scholarships worth more than RM 5 million.
After more than a decade, the MACC Scholarships logo went through a facelift to align itself with the ever-changing landscape of the new generation since the inception of the Colombo Plan Commemoration initiatives. The strong foundation of both Malaysia and Australia continues to be grounded in the current logo, depicting the blossoming of personal friendships and wider relationships that bonded through the decades of excellence in education initiated by the Colombo Plan Commemoration Scholarships. The clarity in the logo highlights the scholarships as its main focus:
- The colours of the crescent and 14-point star in red, with the word Malaysia in blue are taken from its national flag, symbolises the country
- The word Australia is represented in its national colour, gold, with the Southern Cross in its national green colour
- The phrase Colombo Plan Commemoration is emphasised with the accented ‘Scholarships’ in red colour which is what the initiative has brought together all through the years, thus giving rise to great many leaders in both our nations.
The MACC Initiative
The MACC initiative was founded by the Malaysian Australian Alumni Council (MAAC), the Malaysia-Australia Foundation (MAF), the Australia Malaysia Cultural Foundation (AMF) and the Australian High Commission in Malaysia, as well as the then Australian Education International (AEI), now known as the Australian Department of Education. This initiative is supported by the Australian High Commission in Malaysia.
The initiative comprises of the MACC Scholarships provides both Australian and Malaysian tertiary institutions to benefit from the objectives set out above without diminishing their capacity to undertake their own scholarships or student mobility initiatives.
There are 2 ways for tertiary institutions to participate in the program:
Tertiary institutions are required to place scholarships into a pool to be spearheaded by the Malaysian Australian Alumni Council (The MAAC) and administered by selected MACC Scholarships Partners. Those scholarships placed in the pool would continue to carry the identity of the contributing tertiary institutions. In both instances, participating tertiary institutions are required to specify the character of the scholarships and their benefits including tuition fees, travel, accommodation and stipend. The tertiary institutions would also determine the frequency, tenure and other relevant details of the scholarships.
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