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.