Xiamen University Malaysia Campus aims for world-class status

The Xiamen University Malaysia Campus (XMUMC) is slated to open its doors to students early next year. Xiamen University is the first renowned Chinese university to set up an overseas campus. 

Xiamen University Malaysia Campus president-designate Professor Wang Rui Fang says the institution aims to become a university with a distinct global outlook, featuring first-class teaching and research and embracing cultural diversity. 

"The vision and mission of this campus will be different from the parent university as we're going abroad. We have a different target with a different culture and a different language," said Professor Wang. 

XMUMC's 150-acre campus will be located in the 525-acre township in Putrajaya South, south of the national capital, Kuala Lumpur. The campus has a planned floor space of 470,000 sq m and a total estimated investment value of 1.3 billion Malaysian ringgit. The campus will be built in two phases. 

The first phase comprises student accommodations, a lake, swimming pool, café, cafeteria, multimedia rooms, library, classrooms, laboratories, indoor courts for basketball, tennis and badminton, and administrative offices. There will also be an academic exchange center that can accommodate more than 100 people. Phase two will comprise the construction of seven research laboratories. 

The campus will be able to accommodate 10,000 students once fully completed in 2020. Wang expects enrollment to include about 30 percent local students, 30 percent Chinese nationals, and the rest from other countries. All courses will be conducted in English, except for Chinese Studies and Chinese Traditional Medicine courses. XMUMC hopes to have all its courses approved by the government by next September. 

XMUMC is the university's fourth campus, and its first in Malaysia.