Invited by the Malaysian Ministry of Education, Xiamen University will set up a school in Malaysia by 2012. Xiamen University will become the first domestic university to set up an overseas campus.

According to the latest news released on Xiamen University's official Weibo, a twitter-like service in China, the Chinese and Malaysian educational authorities discussed on this issue for many times. At the end of 2011, XMU representatives paid a visit to Malaysia and expressed that XMU will not make profits from this campus. In the future, the profits of the campus will become scholarship money to support and encourage Malaysian students to study at Xiamen University in China.

The Malaysian Government and people hold a positive attitude towards this decision. Presently, the Malaysian government is seeking donor assistance for teaching resources for the new university.

In fact, Xiamen University has established a close tie with Malaysia for a long time. The XMU Center for Southeast Asian Studies, founded in 1956, is one of the major academic institutions on Malaysian studies. On April 6th, 2005, the Malaysian Studies Institution was opened in XMU, which was the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland.