On the 12th of September 2017, UTM Vice Chancellor Prof. Datuk Ir. Dr. Wahid Omar and the President of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology, and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) Prof. Ismail Abdel Ghafar Ismail Farag signed a Memorandum of Agreement to foster closer collaborations between the two universities in areas of research, staff and student exchange and establish the Trans National Education Program (TNE).

In his speech, Prof. Wahid stresses the importance of TNE program which he believes will become the catalyst for excellence in higher education and research enabling both universities to reach greater heights in terms of capacity building and professional development for universal prosperity and the well-being of society. He also highlights that UTM already has many Egyptian students consisting of 70 active Egyptian students in UTM, of which 37 are undergraduate students and 33 are postgraduate students.  Through this collaboration, UTM will receive more Egyptian students and vice versa.  Furthermore, by collaborating with the Malaysia Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) UTM, the TNE program will have added advantage in terms of an expanded network since there are currently 29 Japanese universities that are partners of MJIIT.

Meanwhile, Prof. Ismail congratulated the organizers of the event stating that joint conference such as this should be continued to foster closer collaborations among institutions involved.  He also hoped that through the TNE, students from UTM will also come to AASTMT to complete their engineering degree and broaden their experience while studying at AASTMT.

The signing ceremony was performed in conjunction with the opening ceremony of the 2nd International Conference on Advanced Technology and Applied Sciences (ICATAS 2017) jointly organised by AASTMT and MJIIT.  AASTMT is supported by the Arab League comprising 22 Arab states and 4 observer states.  Also present at the ceremony were the Dean of MJIIT, Prof. Dr. Rubiyah Yusof and the Dean of College of Engineering and Technology, AASTM, Prof Khalid Shehata.