Learn from the best researchers
tHE new international branch campus of the University of Reading Malaysia is bringing its best and brightest to the country’s higher education sector.
Work by its staff in the built environment disciplines is showing off University of Reading Malaysia’s best researchers working with top global experts to address some of the government’s key economic priorities for the next decade.
On Feb 19 and 20, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) joined forces with the University of Reading Malaysia to co-host an industry and research-wide colloquium on construction issues for today and tomorrow. The aim was to stimulate debate and discussion around the big issues for construction in South-East Asia.
The world of construction is changing. Building off-site is changing production; BIM (Building Information Modelling) is changing design and the digitisation of information is impacting the speed of information delivery. There is an increasing need to share ideas and visions of the future.
Speakers for the first day were industry leaders from the Asean region who shared their vision of the future and the challenges ahead. This was followed by a Research Day with an impressive list of speakers who stimulated debate about the research issues for the region and visions for the future.
As befits a meeting of minds across education and industry, the top construction organisations were big supporters of the event.
Prof Neil Crosby of the University of Reading gave one of the three conference keynote addresses at the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society 2014 Conference in Christchurch, New Zealand. Christchurch is still recovering from the major earthquakes that have decimated parts of the city centre and the conference theme revolved around the rebuilding.
On his way there, Prof Crosby took part in the accreditation by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) of three postgraduate and undergraduate degree programmes in Amity University, Delhi.
These programmes in Real Estate and Construction are the first RICS-accredited courses in India, one of the major emerging real estate markets in the world.
RICS is the leading internationally recognised professional body for the real estate and construction industries and accredits University of Reading undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the fields of built environment, real estate, planning and construction management.
The University of Reading is a World Top 200 university in the top 1% of all universi- ties worldwide – it has achieved its status by ensuring its research is top-ranked and global in impact and its teaching is informed by this research to make it the best it can be.
It attracts and selects the best students and prides itself on producing graduates who are highly sought after by employers across the globe. Its students receive an outstanding education in an inspiring environment, taught by academics at the forefront of their subject disciplines.
Explaining the University of Reading Malaysia’s approach to higher education, University of Reading Malaysia vice-chancellor Sir David Bell said, “We want to make a substantial contribution – to equip young people with the skills and knowledge to thrive in a global job market; to create jobs and economic growth in Malaysia; to encourage young people to stay in education and go into higher education, whether with us or our competitors and volunteer in local communities.”
The University of Reading Malaysia at EduCity in Iskandar Malaysia will be the first overseas campus for the university. It will accommodate 2,500 students and offer courses in Law, Built Environment, Finance and Business, with its Henley Business School being recognised as one of the world’s leading business educators.
Built Environment courses (foundation and undergraduate) will begin in September next year. Its new batch starts next month (Foundation in Business) and September (BSc Finance & Business Management).
For details, log on to or e-mail my.enquiries@reading.edu.my.