Founded in 1970, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) ranks among Malaysia’s top three research-intensive universities and enjoys a prominent standing across ASEAN. It is placed 138th globally and 28th in Asia in the 2025 QS World University Rankings. Home to 13 faculties spanning Economics & Management, Information Science and Technology, Arts & Social Sciences and Medicine, the university offers a full spectrum of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs with over 35,000 enrolled students. Its distinguished alumni include Dato’ Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia, alongside several ministers of education, transport and health.

Built upon UKM’s Data Science & Artificial Intelligence discipline (ranked 51–70 worldwide by QS), the program introduces advanced educational philosophies and high-quality resources, integrating the talent cultivation features of both institutions. It is designed to cultivate high-caliber talents with well-versed in international rules and cross-border expertise for China-ASEAN digital economy cooperation, supporting Zhejiang’s effort to accelerate the building of a global digital trade hub. Adopting independent admission, the intake is capped at 40 students per cohort with a 1.5-year curriculum delivered entirely in China. Students who complete the required coursework and meet the degree requirements will be awarded the Master of Data Science degree by UKM.

The program approval serves as a key milestone for ZUFE in supporting the joint development of the Belt and Road Initiative, Zhejiang’s drive to build itself into a strong province of high-standard opening-up and advancing the university’s “"New Finance and Economics Strategy"”. Moving forward, faculty teams from both sides will deepen teaching and research collaboration in data science, innovate interdisciplinary training for emerging engineering and liberal arts. This will empower the development of ZUFE’s Statistics discipline and the internationalization of its academic programs.

(Editor: Che Peng)