CYP receives 35 Diploma Students from Universiti Putra Malaysia

The visit was an opportunity for the students, many of whom are taking the CYP Diploma in Youth Development Work, to broaden their understanding about the function of the Commonwealth Youth Programme.

The day began with an official tour of Marlborough House before a presentation on youth and peace-building, the theme of the recently concluded Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting was delivered by Andrew Robertson, Publications and Communications Consultant for CYP.

The students were then divided into teams to engage in discussions on a number of topics including the relevance of peace-building to a multi-ethnic country like Malaysia. The teams were then assembled back together to report their findings to the entire group.

During their half-day tour of Marlborough House, the students were also given a talk by Dr Zulkarnain Awang, Secretary-General for the Ministry of Education in Malaysia, who was in London to formally launch The Commonwealth Education Good Practice Awards 2009 on 30 April 2008. He informed the students that Malaysia will be hosting the 17 Commonwealth Education Ministers Meeting in June 2009 and encouraged them to deepen their understanding about the Commonwealth.

Before their arrival to the UK, the Malaysian students stopped over in Sri Lanka for a graduation ceremony for some of the students of the Diploma in Youth Development Work in Colombo on 25th April. The UPM students arrived in London on 26 April for a week long educational tour of the United Kingdom which took them to the University of Oxford as well as Brunel University, the UK partner institution for the CYP Diploma in Youth Development Work. They ended their tour with a visit to Marlborough House.

At the end of their visit, Mohamad Hafidz bin Arifin spoke on behalf of the students by saying their “stay has been worthwhile” and informed that “some of us had to work for over a year and half to save up money for this trip but we made it and would like to thank the Commonwealth Youth Programme for your kind hospitality”.

Secretariat Links:

• CYP Diploma