Introduction:

Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus is the international branch campus of Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. The Sarawak campus opened in Kuching, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, in 2000. The campus is a partnership between Swinburne Australia and the Sarawak government. The campus is part of a long-term strategy by Swinburne Australia, established in 1908, to globalize its operations and provide its students with international living, working and learning opportunities.

Since it was first set up, Swinburne Sarawak has been growing rapidly. The custom-designed campus has a current student population of more than 3,000 and this is expected to peak to 5,000 by 2013. Apart from Malaysia, students hail from more than 40 countries including Bangladesh, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, making it a truly international university. Only 15 minutes away from the heart of Kuching city and nestled within commercial and residential areas, the 16.5-acre campus offers undergraduate degrees in engineering, science, commerce, computing and design that are identical to those of its home campus in Australia. Also offered are postgraduate research programs at PhD and masters in these disciplines as well as the Master of Management. Others include one-year foundation programs in business, design, information technology/ multimedia, engineering and science, as well as diploma programs in business, and engineering which articulate into degrees. A range of English language proficiency programs are also available.

Applied professional emphasis and direct placements in industry are a feature of many of its undergraduate courses. The focus on practical training is an integral part of the course structure and the university is well known for producing employment-ready graduates. Swinburne Sarawak maintains a strong technology base and important links with industry. It aspires to be a research intensive university and is developing its research capability with a focus on areas relevant to industry. With state-of-the-art facilities, it conducts research on information security, Mechatronics engineering, software engineering, business as well as education and e-learning. Swinburne Sarawak is one of only 18 universities to be rated Tier 5: Excellent, the highest rating achieved by any university, in the Malaysian Qualifications Agency’s Rating System for Higher Education (SETARA 2009).

Location:

Swinburne Sarawak is situated in Kuching, the capital city of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak. Located in proximity to commercial and residential areas, the 16.5 campus is only 15 minutes away from the Kuching city centre and around 1 hour flight from the famous metropolitan city Kuala Lumpur. At Swinburne Sarawak, students have the opportunity to gain qualification in Foundation to PhD with program available in Commerce/Business, Engineering, Information and Communication Technology, Design and Science.

Awarding Body:

The Swinburne Sarawak campus now operates as a full-fledged branch campus, joining five other Swinburne campuses in Melbourne, Australia, and is under the academic control of Swinburne's Higher Education Division in Australia. Courses offered are identical to those available in Melbourne and graduates are awarded Dual degrees both Malaysian and Australian tetramers.

Academic Faculties:

Following are the programs offered by Swinburne University

• Commerce/ Business
• Design
• Engineering
• Information and Communication Technology
• Sciences
• English Language
• Postgraduate by Coursework
• Postgraduate by Research

Academic Facilities and Resources:

The new extended campus, completed in 2008, added eight new buildings on Swinburne Sarawak's 16.5- acre (67,000 m2) site. The new buildings consist of the Chancellery (Building A), Business, IT and Science block (Building B), a Lecture Theater (Building L), Engineering Block (Building E), Male and Female Hostels (Building H & HM), a Multi-purpose Hall (Building R) and a Multi-storey Car Park (Building P). Previously existing buildings were the Language & Foundation Block (Building G), the Cafeteria, and Lecture Annexes 1 and 2. In total, the new extended campus provides 37 tutorial rooms and 83 laboratories, of which 34 are for engineering, 10 for research, 24 for computers and 15 for science.

At eight-floors high, Building B includes 30 tutorial rooms, 8 science labs, 10 discussion rooms, 34 staff rooms, research labs, computer labs, printing rooms and meeting rooms. All tutorial rooms are equipped with LCD projectors, computers and Internet access. Computer laboratories are equipped with hardware and multimedia applications.

Located right next to Building B, the Engineering Block houses 44 laboratories and workshops catering to almost every area , Telecommunications labs, Radio Frequency labs, Design and Simulation labs, Software Research labs, Fluid labs and workshop, machine workshop and so on. Supported by a 45Mbit/ s internet connection, the campus is wired by Cisco Systems Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data (AVVID), comprising of a 1 Gbit/s Gigabit Ethernet backbone and a 10/100Mbit/s Fast Ethernet for connection to desktops.