Heriot-Watt University Malaysia

Heriot-Watt University has opened its second overseas campus with a new centre in Malaysia. The campus, based in the city of Putrajaya, will teach degrees in business and ­postgraduate studies in renewable energy, engineering and surveying.

Putrajaya is the university’s fifth campus and joins ­facilities in the Capital, the Borders, Orkney and Dubai. It was officially opened by ­British high commissioner Simon Featherstone, and teaching will start in January 2013.

The university is part of a £35 million development in Putrajaya and the whole campus will not be completed until 2014. The university said it will cater for 4,000 students.

Professor Steve Chapman, principal and vice-chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, said during the event: “Our vision is to ­create another centre of excellence alongside our campuses in the UK and Dubai.”

Heriot-Watt University is well-known internationally. Rated as a leading research university by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), Heriot-Watt University has been named Scottish University of the Year for the second consecutive year by the Sunday Times, which also ranked it first in the UK for student experience.

It was also ranked fourth in the UK and top in Scotland in the 2012 National Student Survey. The university has research collaborations with more than 25 countries around the world and a number of strategic alliances with key companies such as Cairn Energy and Renishaw plc, which make graduates from their programmes well known and sought after internationally.

Heriot-Watt University Malaysia aims to be a valued and respected member in the education sector of Malaysia’s Economic Transformation Programme. The university will be bringing international talent and expertise into their upcoming campus as well as recruiting staff locally.

The local to foreign ratio would be 60:40. “Malaysia was selected by us to set up our next campus due to its location for being so central in Asia. The policies adopted by Malaysia were also encouraging as well,” says Professor Brian Robertson, Associate Director of International Development.

“Malaysia’s policy on having more foreign staff in universities is a welcome factor for us. Heriot-Watt University Malaysia is all about having the best talent on campus whether they are local or foreign. It’s all about quality.”

Unlike other institutions’ branch campuses that offer only limited programmes from their main campus, Heriot-Watt University Malaysia plans to offer the whole package from their Putrajaya campus. The programmes offered in Malaysia will have the same content as campuses in Dubai and Edinburgh.