Staff and students at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) celebrated 10 years of success with a day of games, music and entertainment.
Hundreds gathered at the parkland campus near Kuala Lumpur to mark the 10th anniversary of UNMC, which has become one of the biggest success stories in global higher education.
Guests, students and staff had a chance to get a unique view of the 125-acre site and the surrounding jungle — from The University of Nottingham hot-air balloon, which was visiting Malaysia for the first time. The balloon, which is regularly seen in the skies over Nottinghamshire in the UK, provided tethered ascents to give party-goers a bird’s-eye view of the campus.
Among visitors from Nottingham UK were the University’s rowing eight, fresh from their successes in the Varsity Boat Race 2010, held in Kuala Lumpur.
Appropriately, the anniversary party was held on the tenth day of the tenth month — a date regarded by many in Malaysia as auspicious. Proceedings were formally opened by Professor Ian Pashby, Chief Executive Officer and Provost of The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.
The University of Nottingham made history in the year 2000, building on a strong and longstanding relationship with Malaysia to become the first British university to open a fully operational overseas branch campus.
Ten years on, the University is proudly celebrating a decade of international educational and research excellence at UNMC — which has this year been recognised by the Malaysian government as one of the nation’s elite higher education providers.
Since first opening its doors in Kuala Lumpur with just 90 students, the student body at UNMC has grown to a community of over 3,600, based on a purpose-built multi-faculty campus in Semenyih, near Kuala Lumpur. All UNMC students study in English, for University of Nottingham degrees that are taught and assessed in the same way as those at Nottingham UK.
Professor Christine Ennew, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Internationalisation, said: “The 10th Anniversary party was a truly special occasion, bringing together the University community to mark one of the most important innovations in the internationalisation of UK higher education.”
The University’s campuses in Asia — it also has a campus in Ningbo, China — and its ambitious internationalisation strategy prompted The Sunday Times University Guide 2011 to describe Nottingham as ‘the embodiment of the modern international university’.
As part of this special anniversary year for UNMC, the University is hosting a range of special events and promotions both in Malaysia and the UK.
The Malaysia celebration comes ahead of a UK event to mark the University’s decade in Malaysia. The Vice-Chancellor of The University of Nottingham, Professor David Greenaway, is hosting special guests from the UK and Malaysia at a celebratory dinner in London on October 27.
Jeremy Browne MP, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a Nottingham alumnus, will address guests at the event. Neville Green OBE, Chairman of the British Malaysia Society, will also speak about the links between the two nations.
The maturity of UNMC as an academic centre of excellence has recently been recognised with a double accolade from the Malaysian government.
Summer 2010 saw UNMC rated ‘excellent’ in The Rating System for Malaysian Higher Education, known as Setara. This accolade followed the conferment of ‘Self-Accrediting Status’ on UNMC by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, in spring 2010. This highly significant move granted UNMC the power to approve and accredit its own degree programmes.
Self-accreditation is a new initiative by the Malaysian government, and is only awarded to mature institutions with a well-established reputation for delivering the very best degree programmes.
UNMC now provides Foundation, Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in: Applied Psychology, Biosciences, Business & Management, Computer Science & Information Technology, Economics, Education, Engineering, International Communications, Law, Modern Languages, Pharmacy, Politics, History and International Relations and Psychology.
