Malaysia
Multimedia University
Multimedia University (MMU), a tertiary education institution set up through Universiti Telekom Sdn Bhd (UTSB), a wholly owned subsidiary of TM, fulfils the noblest of corporate social responsibilities – taking up the challenge of educating the next generation the nation’s leaders and knowledge workers. As the first private university in Malaysia, MMU developed the pioneer model for the successful establishment of private universities in the nation, paving the way for the growth of the private tertiary education sector. As the university at the heart of the MSC, MMU also serves as a catalyst for the development of the high tech ICT industry of the nation, parallel to the Silicon Valley-Stanford model in the United States.Growing to over 20,000 students in 15 years, MMU has achieved much in a relatively short period of time. The university runs in two campuses, its original campus in the historical city of Melaka, and the campus in Cyberjaya that was opened by the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed. It has produced 30,523 graduates in its time, and a recent survey demonstrates that 91% of these secure employment within 6 months of the completion of studies. It has also grown an outstanding pool of international students numbering at 4,200 from 77 countries. Establishing itself as a major player in research and development, and maintaining excellent ties with the industry through collaborations and research partnerships, MMU now hosts 13 Research Centres to date, focusing in the niche areas of nanotechnology, microsystems, biometrics, virtual reality, microwave and telecommunications, engineering, photonics, advanced robotics and business.
Through an organisation-wide policy of prudent spending and careful budgeting, the university successfully achieved financial independence within the first 3 years of its founding, and continue to be sustainable and financially healthy to this day. This is in spite of a recent infrastructural expansion in both its campuses during the period of 2006 till present, with the completion of the Phase 3 of development in the Melaka Campus and Phase 2 of development in the Cyberjaya Campus.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia(UKM)
The National University of Malaysia (abbreviation: NUM; Malay: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; abbreviated UKM is a public university located in Bangi, Selangor which is about 35 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Its teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM) is located in Cheras and also has a branch campus in Kuala Lumpur. There are 17,500 undergraduate students enrolled, and 5,105 postgraduate students of which 1368 are foreign students from 35 countries.Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia is one of five research universities in the country. It was ranked number 259th in the world by QS World University Rankings in 2014. It is ranked 98th place in the 100 best new universities established within the last 50 years in the world. It is the only university from Malaysia that made it in the 2012 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Top 50 Universities Under 50 Years Old list ranked in the 31st place. It placed 53rd and 58th in the QS Top 500 Asian University Rankings in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
University of Malaya (UM)
As with any reputable university, our strength lies in the creativity, talent and dynamism of its people. Our researchers are in collaborative partnerships with more than 100 international institutions working on diverse topics from HIV-Aids, infectious diseases, biodiversity, nanotechnology to law, intellectual property, culture, religion, gender studies and poverty eradication studies. In the coming years, the university will see a further quantum leap in high quality research activity and publications as a result of the huge research funding that the university now enjoys from numerous sources and the many excellent students and staff that we are now admitting.
The University of Malaya has been, and remains, at the forefront of landmark scientific and medical discoveries as is evidenced by the numerous awards that have been won both locally and internationally. For example, the work conducted at the Faculty of Medicine was recognised with the Mahathir Science Award 2006 for outstanding contribution to the understanding and treatment of Nipah Encephalitis. This work has also received the 2008 Merdeka Award.
In addition, UM researchers received the highest number of successful applications in the “Research Co-operation” category of the United Kingdom Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education (PMI-2) Connect Scheme with seven successful grants totalling GBP 230,385. The awards were given in the fields of photonics, plasma laser physics, halocarbons and climate change, group theory and mathematical cryptography, air-conditioning and refrigeration engineering, molecular microbiology and biotechnology.
Entrepreneurship is strongly promoted in the university where innovative schemes managed by the Centre for Technology Transfer and Commercialization are available that make it easy for staff or students to set up companies, especially if they have new innovative business ideas or patents with commercial value. The University of Today needs to strive for more than it did before, especially in setting role models for entrepreneurial success. In short, it is my great desire to see the university campus as fertile ground for the cultivation and nurturing of entrepreneurial and business-minded individuals. Students need to develop leadership qualities and become global citizens. Apart from being provided with solid academic content on campus, many will continue to be sent abroad to engage in international exchanges. Funded partially via the Sultan Azlan Shah fund for student mobility, we expect approximately 1,250 UM students of each cohort to experience international student exchange and internships. Currently, the university has reciprocal arrangements with a number of universities for student exchange. For example, 15 UM students from the Science and Engineering faculties annually visit Inje University in Korea and vice-versa. Approximately 50 students are exchanged between the Beijing Foreign Studies University and UM’s Academy of Malay Studies annually. In addition, UM’s Faculty of Built Environment has welcomed 20 students from the University of Southern California at Santa Barbara.