COMPREHENSIVE: Besides sporting facilities and lecture halls, Swinburne Sarawak’s 16.5 acre campus houses 34 laboratories for engineering, 10 for research, 15 for science and 24 for computing, including a Mac laboratory.
KUCHING: Highly skilled and knowledgeable workers are needed to fill the more than 800,000 jobs to be created with the implementation of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).
To meet the demand for a skilled and knowledgeable workforce, the state government has turned to Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus (Swinburne Sarawak) to design and conduct courses specified by the Sarawak government.
To date, Swinburne Sarawak has trained close to 100 individuals in the shaping of metals, basic foundry and casting, and basic condition monitoring and maintenance for industry.
The courses are intended to provide manpower for the aluminium and steel industries that are expected to have the highest economic impact on Sarawak.
The confidence the state government has in Swinburne Sarawak to produce the much-needed human capital for SCORE is based on the university’s long track record of close links to industry.
According to Professor Ken Heskin, who is the acting pro vice-chancellor and chief executive of the university’s Sarawak campus, Swinburne has a history of more than 100 years of offering training, education and research designed to support industry.
“At Swinburne Sarawak, we are happy to be able to contribute to SCORE. With more funding, we hope to have more people involved in this vital training for the development of Sarawak,” he added.
The courses designed and conducted by the university are funded by the State Planning Unit via the Ministry of Industrial Development.
Swinburne, a not-for-profit university, has a reputation in Australia for its practical, career-oriented programmes. They have a strong emphasis on hands-on learning and the university’s close links with industry ensures its programmes are in tandem with the future needs of industry.
Swinburne Sarawak’s programmes in engineering, science, commerce/business, design and ICT are similar to those offered in its home campus in Melbourne.
They are accredited by professional bodies such as the Institution of Engineers Australia, Institution of Engineers Malaysia, CPA Australia and the Australian Computer Society.
The university is also planning to offer a chemical engineering course this year that will give students completing the foundation studies in engineering and science an additional engineering major to choose from.
On its campus, students have access to technologically advanced facilities. The 16.5-acre campus houses 34 laboratories for engineering, 10 for research, 15 for science and 24 for computing, including a Mac laboratory.
Students and staff also have access to 37 tutorial rooms, a 350 seating-capacity lecture theatre and a library that can accommodate 750 students.
Other facilities are a multi-purpose hall offering sports facilities for badminton, squash, basketball and volleyball as well as a gym. Tennis courts sit atop a seven-storey car park that has bays for about 500 vehicles.
Two blocks of fully furnished and WiFi-enabled hostels on campus accommodate more than 430 students.
Swinburne Sarawak is one of only 18 institutions in the country rated in the ‘Excellent’ category of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency’s Rating System for Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (SETARA ’09).
Last year, it was awarded self-accreditation status by the MQA following an audit, signifying that the university has in place an effective quality assurance system that meets the stringent MQA criteria and requirements. This recognition by the MQA gives Swinburne Sarawak the autonomy to accredit its programmes internally without going through the MQA.
Internationally, Swinburne has been ranked among the top 3 per cent of universities by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (2011), the QS World University Rankings (2010), and ranked as the best university in Melbourne by the Good Universities Guide for teaching quality (2007-2010) and graduate satisfaction (2007, 2008 and 2010).
For more information visit www.swinburne.edu.my, call 082 – 260353 or email to [email protected] or visit their booth at the third Borneo Post International Education Fair (BPIEF) held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on Mar 3-4 from 10am to 6pm.