Manipal Education to set up $180 mn varsity in Malaysia

Karnataka-based Manipal Education would set up a $180 million multi-disciplinary university in Malaysia with the first batch commencing next year.

The Manipal International University (MIU) in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur would cater to Malaysian students, as well as international ones coming from other regions of Asia, its CEO & Managing Director Anand Sudarshan said today.

MIU expects to enroll 15,000 to 20,000 students in the next seven years, Sudarshan told reporters here, in the presence of Malaysia's Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

The university will provide both undergraduate (bachelor's) and post-graduate programmes in engineering streams, management studies, business and commerce, law, animation and design and hospitality and tourism.

Sudarshan said MIU has identified four-five locations to set up a 100-acre campus and would finalise one. The first phase of the campus would be ready in 2012. Till then MIU would operate from an interim campus.

Nordin said Malaysia's vision is to make the country a regional hub for higher education, as also expand access to such institutions for domestic students. There are already 80,000-85,000 international students studying in Malaysia. "Our aim is to take it to 1,50,000 by 2015," he said.

Sudarshan said Manipal Education would invest up RM 650 million ($180 million) for fully setting up the university, at the invitation of the Malaysian government, over four-five years.

Funds for it would be raised through a combination of internal accruals and debt. MIU would recruit nearly 1,000 academic staff.

Programmes offered at the university would be designed and developed in close partnership with various industries to enable students graduating out of MIU to become sought-after professionals.

Over a period of time, MIU expects up to 50 per cent of its students to be from outside Malaysia.