At the moment, Bandar Enstek in Negeri Sembilan, right next to the busy Sepang F1 circuit, doesn’t seem like one of Malaysia’s biggest education hubs.

But the development of the new Kuala Lumpur Education City (KLEC) is rapid, and several schools and universities are expected to be up and running around the area in two years.

Kahlil Anwar Kamal, the executive director of Kuala Lumpur Education City is proud to say they have already secured some world-class partners in KLEC—among them Epsom College, a UK boarding school.

The construction of the British-style school’s 70- acre site starts in early 2011, and it will open its doors in 2012.

Mr Anwar doesn’t yet wish to elaborate further about the other partner institutions, simply because many agreements have not been finalised yet. Whatever they are, however, the news should be exciting.

“Currently we are looking for universities from the United States to partner with us,” tells Fatin Farhana, corporate affairs manager at KLEC.

“A variety of US universities are known for their expertise in liberal arts—we are now searching for the best candidates to start their campuses at the Education City.”

One of the most well-known people involved in the development of KLEC is the AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes—a former Epsom College student himself—as the chairman of the board of directors as well as the key promoter of the Education City.

He states education has always been close to his heart. And so it is to Mr Anwar’s as well. “We are definitely setting up something unique here. Our goal is to push the education industry to a new level,” he says.

Bandar Enstek is actually quite a logical place for the Education City due to its proximity to the KLIA international airport and rather easy access to the capital city.

The location makes it a very convenient place to study, even for internationals. Malaysia is geographically very well located; it is not far from Asia’s big players like China and India.

Malaysia has for long been a regional education hub in Southeast Asia. According to Mr Anwar, altogether 80–90,000 students are being educated in the country’s variety of colleges and universities.

Not surprisingly, the target groups are students in other Asian countries as well as in the Middle East.

Mr Anwar adds that to Europeans and Americans, Malaysia might also appeal because of the relatively low cost of living as well as possibilities for post-graduate study, abundance of resources and fantastic research facilities.

In many Malaysian universities the tuition fees are also significantly cheaper than in Europe or neighbouring Singapore. He sees Malaysia’s language policy as a great advantage for the international students coming to the country.

English is widely spoken here and it will also be the language of instruction in the schools and universities opening in the Education City.

So far it seems that KLEC will at first be focusing on specific degree programmes as well as short courses of executive education, mainly two and ten-day-long ones.

Organising the short courses has already been discussed with certain international universities for 2011.

Mr Anwar emphasises that clustering is essential. “For us, it is very important to be focused, since the Klang Valley area already has a vast amount of different institutes of higher education.” He feels they need to stand out.

“At the moment there are three important clusters: business, education and medicine. These themes seem to be something that the KLEC will focus on as well, but mainly on postgraduate study and research level.”

He thinks it is better to bring in top-quality universities than just bringing something that can fill the gap of what is needed in terms of education here in Malaysia.

However, Mr Anwar also sees that many of Kuala Lumpur’s existing universities should be developed and improved further instead of constantly bringing in new institutes of higher education.

KL Education City is not the first education hub near the capital. Universities have in previous years concentrated on Cyberjaya, Shah Alam as well as Sunway, all a bit outside the Kuala Lumpur city centre.

Cyberjaya, among others, has been criticised for not having enough services for the students. Mr Anwar admits that student needs are extremely important. When building an education hub, one must not only think about the universities themselves, but also other facilities that the students use on a daily basis.

Accommodation, food, transport and other services must be taken into consideration. Mr Anwar also points out that green values are nowadays increasingly important in town planning.

But why do many parents in Malaysia still send their children overseas for higher education? In Mr Anwar’s opinion, many Malaysian universities are not yet up to standard. He sees great possibilities in the future though.

“The local universities are getting there.” He says lots of Malaysians don’t really want to go abroad for their studies, but many don’t see a choice; the quality of education and work opportunities are just so much better in places like the UK and Australia. Malaysia needs to get the graduates coming back, Mr Anwar says, to show that the country is worth coming back to by offering attractive work opportunities and decent salaries. “It takes a big amount of effort, but if we all work together, we will succeed.”

He points out that a great opportunity lies in existing universities’ cooperation. ”Kuala Lumpur has got huge potential for good quality higher education.”

Useful contacts

Kuala Lumpur Education City
65 Jalan Timur 2/2B,
Timur@enstek, Bandar Enstek
Negeri Sembilan
Tel: 06–7940 068
www.klec.com.my

Epsom College Malaysia
65 Jalan Timur 2/2B,
Timur@enstek, Bandar Enstek
Negeri Sembilan
Tel: 06–7940 305
www.epsomcollege.edu.my