Manipal Education, the higher education services entity with a multi-national presence, plans to set up the Manipal International University (MIU) in Kuala Lumpur spread over 100 acres. It is being set up by the group on an invitation from the Malaysian government.
The university will be the second institution of the group in Malaysia after the Melaka Manipal Medical College (MMMC). It will be the third full-fledged university of the group after Manipal University and the Sikkim Manipal University.
With a planned investment of up to Malaysian Ringgit 650 million ($180 million) over the next five years, the Manipal International University (MIU) will be a multi-disciplinary university that will cater to the needs of Malaysian students and students from the ASEAN countries, North Asia, India, West Asia and Central Asia, who are now choosing Malaysia as their education destination. Over time, MIU expects up to 50 per cent of its student population to be from outside Malaysia.
The university will have an intake of about 15,000 in about six years. It will start work on the campus in about six months. It will have a faculty strength of 800-1,000 made of permanent and adjunct faculty members. About 600 of them will be permanent.
The group intends to fund the university from internal accruals and also raise funds for setting up and expanding the university, mostly from Malaysia. It did not consider India to raise funds. Instead, it wanted to take advantage of the lower interest rates prevalent in Malaysia. While it is looking at long-term funding. It wants to mostly raise funds from places that would give them low interest funds. “We are looking at Malaysia and international sources,” Anand Sudarshan told Business Standard. “Interest rates are reasonable in Malaysia.”
Malaysia is stands 11th globally among destinations for education, and second in Asia after Singapore. It has six foreign universities functioning there today.
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Manipal International University will commence its operations from an interim campus, and its permanent campus will come up within three years after commencement. MIU will have a network of academic collaborations with universities from around the world, including the Manipal University in India.
Over the past almost 60 years, Manipal Education has today become among the largest private higher education entities globally. Over 1/5th of the doctors in Malaysia are Manipal Education alumni. MMMC was also the first Indo-Malaysian collaborative effort in Malaysia in higher education. Last year it expanded its offerings by starting a dental sciences programme as well.
The award of the charter to start the MIU in Kuala Lumpur was made on October 27.