{EDUCITY @ IDR, Iskandar Malaysia integrated education city, ready to accept the entry of the first group of students in October when the first higher education institution of Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMED) began operating in the southern economic development.
|Chief Executive Education @ Iskandar Sdn Bhd, Khairil Anwar Ahmad, says development of the medical faculty of a branch campus of a branch campus of Newcastle University is now 85 percent completed and is ready to accept the admission of students by the third quarter of this year.
|He said that NUMED intakes of three groups and two groups of students making their first intake is currently studying at the main campus in the United Kingdom (UK), which will spend the balance of their studies in the Iskandar Malaysia.
||"NUMED give special emphasis to the full medical course, in addition there are proposals to expand the scope of study such as biomedical courses in the future," he told The Star in Kuala Lumpur, recently.
||EduCity @ Iskandar, the university campus, many developed Iskandar Investment Bhd (IIB) in an area of about 122 hectares in Nusajaya aims to be the center of knowledge, not just for Asia but the world.
||The project will be hosting facilities together with a combination of selected major universities from around the world, including institutions of higher learning.
|Khairil Anwar said, in preparation for receiving the entry of the first group of students in the region, Education @ Iskandar, who is also a subsidiary of IIB is currently preparing the facilities for students including the construction of apartments, sports complexes and stadiums.
||"All the facilities will be completed by the first quarter of 2012, in which the facility is shared by all universities that would operate there," he said.
||He said up to 12 half-floor apartment which is now 25 percent completed is capable of housing 815 students at any one time with the option to rent a room for one or shared between two to four people per room.
||In the meantime, he said, involved a sports complex will be equipped with an Olympic size swimming pool and the stadium will have a capacity of 12.000 spectators in the development phase is already 15 percent completed.
||"The facilities can be shared not only be free of all universities in the region but it will be rented to the public," he said.
||Meanwhile, he said, established a second campus in EduCity @ Iskandar the Netherlands Maritime Institute is scheduled to operate in June 2012.
||He said the university was established in collaboration with two leading maritime institutions of higher learning from the Netherlands Maritime Institute Willem Barentsz (MIWB) and the Maritime Instituts de Ruyter (MIR) is starting to take the first group of students at its temporary campus at the Plaza Kotaraya, Johor Bahru in April.
