Gateway to Korean universities
tHE Korean wave that began with Korean dramas has now developed into a general affection for Korean culture and language and the recent popularity of K-Pop demonstrates that the Korean wave is not simply a Korean phenomenon but rather, a truly global wave.
South Korea is among the countries in East Asia that offers a quality education programme, especially in engineering – such as electrical and biomedical, bioengineering and chemical, nuclear and quantum, nanotechnology, semiconductor, technology mobile phone system) – as well as computer science and creative art programmes such as animation and game design. Compared to countries popular for advanced studies such as the United States, Canada and Britain. South Korea has a relatively lower cost of study, including both tuition fees and living costs.
The 12 National Key Economic Area (NKEA) comprises selected sectors of economic opportunity for the private sector, which will drive Malaysia towards high-income status and global competitiveness.
In 2010, education was one of the areas in which NKEAs has identified 13 “entry point projects” (EPPs) to raise overall education standards and deliver significant results within 10 years. Among the objective of EPPs is to create clusters of expertise in engineering, science and innovation.
In line with that, Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Institute of Information Technology – also known as a UniKL MIIT – took the initiative to offer the Foundation for Korean University programme, which prepares students to pursue their first-year degree in Engineering, Computer Science or Animation at selected South Korea Universities such as Hanyang University (HYU), Ewha University, Sungkyunkwan University and Semyung University.
UniKL MIIT is in planning to increase the number of collaborations with other Korean universities this year. This programme is accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and approved by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
Students will spend one and a half years (three semesters) under the Foundation programme in UniKL MIIT before continuing their undergraduate programme in Engineering, Computer Science or Animation at selected Korean universities for four years.
The teaching staff consist of local lecturers who graduated from Korea University and native Korean lecturers. All courses are conducted in Korean.
It is compulsory for students to take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) and achieve Level 3 at least to qualify to undergo a bachelor’s degree programme at Korea University.
The first intake was carried out in January 2013. To date, there is a total of four intakes in this programme – two intakes have completed their studies and another two are still ongoing.
Based on feedback from a representative of the first batch of students, Nurul Atiqah Maaruf, “Studying in UniKL is enjoyable. UniKL MIIT really prepares students for further studies in Korea. Besides studies, students are also involved in many activities such as Open Days, intercultural activities and sports. Students are exposed to the Korean university learning environment.” Now Atiqah is studying at Hanyang University in an engineering course.
This programme is open to Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) school-leavers and they will be well equipped with the technical and theoretical subjects of Engineering, Information Technology and Creative Art.
With the strategically located education premise at Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, which is easily accessible by public transport, this is an opportunity for students to make UniKL MIIT a choice to realise their dreams to pursue undergraduate programmes in South Korea. This is also the chance for students to explore the global culture and a different study environment.
For more details, log on to
or contact 03-2175 4229 (Nurashikin Saaludin, Programme coordinator) or 03-2175 4146 (Mohamad Hafize Md Badri, Marketing and Admission section head).