It’s been a busy time for our Malaysia Campus over the last few months, with prestigious visits to the campus and preparations to send the first cohort of students to study in Southampton.
At the end of June, two members of the University Council, Ros Rivaz, Deputy Chair, and Dr David Price visited the campus to investigate the future possibilities of expanding the campus. The Council members, accompanied by colleagues including Professor Mark Spearing, Pro-Vice Chancellor (International), and Professor John McBride, the Chief Executive Officer of USMC had a busy week of engagements. They visited other UK universities in the region, Iskandar Investment, the British High Commission, the Ministry of Education, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Lloyds Register and A*Star (in Singapore). Ros Rivaz commented that some of the meetings had not only been useful contextually, but also inspirational.
On 15 August 2014, a large group from UK Trade and Investment, joined by members of the British High Commission’s Prosperity Team and the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce, visited the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus. The visit reflected the importance of the education sector to the UK’s efforts to deliver more business for the country in Malaysia. During the visit, the group developed a better understanding of the University’s strategy in Malaysia which will enable the teams to do more in terms of promoting the University’s capabilities and help the development of more long-term partnerships between the University of Southampton and Malaysian businesses. Tony Collingridge, the Director of UK Trade & Investment said: “The visit was a great success and the team came away enthused”.
The Malaysia Campus Open Day, held on 16 August, attracted over 100 visitors. Visiting students took part in practical workshops – including the opportunity to solder LEDs onto circuit boards and instruction on how to use drawings to manufacture an engineering artefact, using the quadcopter structure. One of our current students in Malaysia also shared her experiences of working on her engineering project. The next Malaysia Campus Open is on 13 September 2014.
This month, 22 students who have been studying at our University Malaysia Campus will travel over to the UK for their final two years of study. The majority of students will join our free Meet and Greet service to ensure their transition is as smooth as possible and a number of events have been arranged for the students, prior to the start of their academic programme.