
Heriot-Watt University Malaysia has been officially opened by The British High Commissioner, Simon Featherstone CMG at a ceremony at their new premises at Menara PjH, the prestigious headquarters of Putrajaya Holdings (PjH). The ceremony also marked the Ministry of Higher Education’s recognition through the award of Registration to Heriot-Watt University Malaysia.
Malaysia is Heriot-Watt’s fifth campus, with three campuses in Scotland and one in Dubai. The first group of students will be studying the University’s internationally renowned Edinburgh Business School MBA programme, with postgraduate degree programmes in energy, renewable energy, construction project management, quantity surveying, petroleum engineering, business psychology and international business management planned from September 2013.
The University is working closely with Putrajaya Holdings Sdn Bhd, Putrajaya’s master developers, in the development of a flagship purpose-built campus currently under construction in Putrajaya. This represents an investment of RM 173 million and the campus is scheduled for completion in 2014. The new campus will create opportunities for up to 4,000 undergraduate, postgraduate and research students to study a range of professionally relevant Heriot-Watt degrees tailored to the needs of industry, commerce and wider society and will not only serve students from across Malaysia, but will offer opportunities to students from countries in the surrounding region. This latest Heriot-Watt international development responds to Malaysia’s drive for economic growth and development, offering high quality British education to students from Malaysia and across Asia.
HE Simon Featherstone, British High Commissioner, said “I am delighted and honoured to be officially opening Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. Heriot-Watt is one of Scotland’s leading Universities. Its campus in Putrajaya, the only foreign university awarded this honour following a very competitive bidding process, will give students in Malaysia a further opportunity to experience British education at its best. I congratulate Heriot-Watt University Malaysia on reaching this important milestone”.
Professor Steve Chapman, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, said, “Our vision for Heriot-Watt University Malaysia is to create another centre of excellence alongside our campuses in the UK and Dubai, and our focus will be on delivering the same exceptionally high quality education and cutting edge research.
“The campus in Malaysia will offer programmes in line with the Government’s ’10th Malaysia Plan’. We will also seek collaborations with other Malaysian universities and industry partners in areas relevant to the economic development of the country.”
Datuk Azlan, Chief Executive of PjH, said, “The setting up of Heriot-Watt University’s branch campus in Putrajaya is an important milestone in our young city’s history and we are indeed proud and honoured to have Heriot-Watt University Malaysia in Putrajaya. The University, with its commendable achievements being Scottish University of the Year, Number 1 in UK for student experience and voted Number 1 in Scotland by students in the year 2012, will definitely help Malaysia produce the next generation of global leaders in business and technology. This is very much aligned to the Malaysian Government’s aspirations in the 10th Malaysian Plan and the Economic Transformation programme to transform the economy of Malaysia into a high income, knowledge based country.
“We welcome and look forward to the University’s presence in Putrajaya and are certainly excited to welcome the first batch of the MBA students in Menara PJH here in January 2013. We continue to hope that this collaboration between Putrajaya Holdings and Heriot-Watt University will provide the impetus to attract the much-needed young, imaginative and creative individuals to Putrajaya, to add life and vibrancy to the city. This in turn, will spearhead more interesting development and activities in the city, thereby making our city more alive.”
Professor Robert Craik Provost and CEO of Heriot-Watt University Malaysia said
“I am delighted to be leading the development of this new campus and bringing high quality teaching and research programmes for which Heriot-Watt is known to Malaysia. Our new campus in Menara PjH provides us with an excellent environment, in the heart of the city, to deliver excellent student experience and highly employable graduates.”