Al-Madinah International University (MEDIU)

About Al-Madinah International University (MEDIU)

Al-Madinah International University, generally known by its acronym MEDIU, is a private Islamic university headquartered in Shah Alam, the capital of the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The institution received approval from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia on 26 December 2006 and completed its formal registration on 20 June 2007 under license document KPT/JPS/DFT/US/B22. MEDIU is named after Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, the holy city in present-day Saudi Arabia where Prophet Muhammad established the capital of the first Islamic state.

The university was conceived by a group of Muslim scholars who set out to combine classical Islamic scholarship with modern e-learning technology. The founding rationale, articulated at the time of registration, was to make rigorous Islamic higher education accessible to Muslim learners worldwide regardless of geography, work commitments, or family constraints, by routing the bulk of teaching through an online platform rather than the conventional campus-residency model. Dr. Mohammad Khalifa Al-Tamimi, who taught at the Islamic University of Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah in Saudi Arabia for 24 years before relocating to Malaysia, serves as Rector and as the general manager associated with the founding project.

MEDIU today operates 122 academic programmes across six faculties, of which 94 carry full accreditation from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency. The institution enrols students from more than 90 nationalities, the bulk of them studying online from their home countries, and is recognised as one of Malaysia’s top five online universities by enrolment and operational scale. The institutional positioning places MEDIU at the intersection of two distinct higher education currents in Malaysia: the country’s substantial private Islamic university sector, which includes International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, and University College of MAIWP International, and Malaysia’s broader online and distance-learning sector pioneered by Open University Malaysia (OUM) and UNITAR International University.

Within that intersection, MEDIU is the country’s specialist Islamic e-learning institution. No other Malaysian university combines a primary delivery model of online distance learning with a curricular centre of gravity in Sharia, Quran and Sunnah, and Arabic Language. The conventional public Islamic universities operate principally on-campus, and the conventional online universities operate principally in business, IT, and education. MEDIU’s institutional niche sits at the overlap of the two.

MEDIU Location and Campus

MEDIU’s physical headquarters is at Tingkat 11, Plaza Masalam, No. 2, Jalan Tengku Ampuan Zabedah E/9E, Seksyen 9, 40100 Shah Alam, Selangor. Plaza Masalam is a commercial high-rise in Shah Alam’s Section 9, the central business district of the Selangor state capital. The 11th-floor footprint accommodates administrative offices, examination halls, faculty meeting rooms, the e-learning content production studios, and the in-person tutorial spaces used by Klang Valley resident students who opt for the on-campus delivery mode.

Shah Alam itself sits roughly 25 km west of Kuala Lumpur and is reachable from KL Sentral via the KTM Komuter line to Shah Alam station, followed by a short Rapid KL bus or e-hailing connection to Section 9. For students arriving from outside the Klang Valley, Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang and Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang are both within an hour’s drive. The Plaza Masalam location is functional rather than expansive, which is consistent with MEDIU’s institutional design: the university’s principal investment is not in physical infrastructure but in the e-learning platform that serves the geographically dispersed student body.

The bulk of MEDIU’s enrolled students never set foot in Plaza Masalam. The online delivery model means the working campus is the learning management system at mediu.edu.my, where recorded lectures, live tutorials, course materials, discussion boards, and online proctored examinations are administered. This is a deliberate institutional design choice rather than a constraint: MEDIU positions itself in its public materials as a ‘Gateway To Borderless Learning’ and orients its operations around the online cohort. Students based in Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur, and Subang Jaya may attend on-campus tutorials and use the Plaza Masalam facilities; students based in Jakarta, Cairo, Lagos, Karachi, Riyadh, or Sarajevo complete the entire qualification through the platform.

The dual-mode delivery has implications for fee structure. Online-only students pay programme fees calibrated for distance delivery, without on-campus accommodation, transport, or visa overheads. International students who choose the on-campus mode pay an additional visa and bond component estimated at approximately RM 5,120 depending on citizenship.

MEDIU Programmes

MEDIU organises its academic offering across six faculties, with the Faculty of Islamic Sciences functioning as the institutional centre of gravity and the secular faculties providing complementary breadth.

The Faculty of Islamic Sciences is the largest and most distinctive faculty at MEDIU. Bachelor programmes include the Bachelor of Da’wah and Usuluddin (the foundational doctrines and methods of Islamic propagation and theology), Bachelor of Al-Hadith (the science of prophetic traditions, their chains of transmission, and authentication), Bachelor in Science of Al-Quran (Quranic exegesis, recitation sciences, and textual analysis), and Bachelor of Fiqh and Usul Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence and the principles of legal reasoning). At postgraduate level, the faculty runs Master and PhD programmes in Usul al-Fiqh, Quran and Sunnah Studies, Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Heritage, and related fields. The faculty’s primary teaching language is Arabic, reflecting the source-text requirements of classical Islamic scholarship.

The Faculty of Languages runs the Bachelor of Languages (Hons) in Arabic Language and Literature and the Bachelor of Education in Teaching Arabic Language. The faculty supports both linguistic study of Classical Arabic for non-native speakers and the pedagogical training of Arabic language teachers, a substantial constituency given Arabic’s status as the curricular foundation across the Muslim world.

The Faculty of Education delivers Bachelor and postgraduate programmes oriented toward Islamic education pedagogy, curriculum development, and education administration. Master’s and Doctoral pathways accommodate practising teachers and education administrators seeking advanced qualifications without leaving their employment.

The Faculty of Finance and Administrative Sciences runs the Bachelor of Business Administration with Islamic Banking and Finance pathways, alongside conventional management and administration tracks. Postgraduate programmes include the MBA and DBA, with research specialisations in Islamic finance, Shariah-compliant banking, and Halal industry management.

The Faculty of Computer and Information Technology offers Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Bachelor of Information Technology, and related programmes. The faculty diversifies MEDIU’s portfolio beyond the religious and language disciplines and provides STEM pathways for students whose academic interest lies outside the Faculty of Islamic Sciences.

The Faculty of Engineering runs Bachelor of Engineering programmes that round out the institutional portfolio.

In total, MEDIU operates 122 academic programmes across the six faculties, with 94 of them holding full MQA accreditation as listed on the Malaysian Qualifications Register. Postgraduate research applications run year-round, with rolling supervisor allocation, and benefit from MEDIU’s role as a centre for Arabic-language Islamic studies research at the doctoral level.

MEDIU Fees and Tuition

MEDIU’s fee structure reflects the institution’s online delivery model: programme costs are materially below those of campus-based Malaysian private universities, and payment plans are designed around the working professional student rather than the school-leaver.

Programme Category	Indicative Total Tuition (RM)
Bachelor Programmes (typical)	13,500 to 18,000
Master’s by Coursework	14,000 to 20,000
Master’s by Research	12,000 to 18,000
PhD Programmes	18,000 to 28,000
Foundation/Diploma	8,000 to 12,000

The structural fee economics work as follows. Students who pay the full programme fee during the first semester receive a 20% discount on the headline figure. Students who pay on a semester-by-semester basis receive a 20% discount on the first semester fee and a 10% discount on each subsequent semester fee, provided payment is made during the registration window for that semester. For online students, the institution accepts an initial registration payment of RM 1,000 without discount, with the balance of the first semester fee due before the final semester examination begins.

International students choosing the on-campus mode at Plaza Masalam pay an additional visa and bond component estimated at approximately RM 5,120 depending on citizenship. Online international students do not incur this overhead because no Malaysian student pass is required.

The online delivery model means students do not pay for hostel accommodation, on-campus food services, or transport at the Shah Alam campus. The hidden cost is the digital infrastructure: stable broadband, a working laptop or desktop, and the ability to attend live tutorials in the relevant time zone. MEDIU’s published programme totals are calibrated for the Malaysian student market; specific country pricing for international online students may vary and is published on the agent portal at online.mediu.edu.my.

The current fee schedule is materially below comparable on-campus Bachelor of Islamic Studies pricing at private universities. By way of context, a four-year Bachelor in Islamic Studies at a campus-based private university in the Klang Valley typically runs RM 30,000 to RM 50,000 in total tuition, while MEDIU’s online equivalent at RM 13,500 to RM 18,000 represents roughly half to a third of that benchmark. The cost differential reflects the absence of physical facility overheads and the leverage of an online platform that serves a globally distributed cohort from a single content production base in Shah Alam.

MEDIU Accreditation and MQA Recognition

MEDIU is licensed by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia under document KPT/JPS/DFT/US/B22 issued in June 2007. The institutional license confers degree-granting authority under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and is the basis for MEDIU’s standing as an accredited Malaysian university.

Programme-level accreditation is administered by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency through the Malaysian Qualifications Register. As at the most recent published institutional listing, MEDIU has 122 programmes registered on the MQR, of which 94 hold full MQA accreditation. The full accreditation list is searchable at mqa.gov.my by entering Al-Madinah International University in the institutional search field, with each programme entry displaying the MQA reference code, accreditation status, and validity period.

The 94 fully accredited programmes span the six faculties: Islamic Sciences, Languages, Education, Finance and Administrative Sciences, Computer and Information Technology, and Engineering. The Faculty of Islamic Sciences carries the largest concentration of accredited Bachelor and postgraduate programmes, reflecting both the curricular weight of the faculty within MEDIU and the relative procedural maturity of MQA accreditation in the Islamic Sciences subject area.

For prospective students, MQA accreditation matters for three downstream reasons. First, full MQA accreditation is the prerequisite for graduate eligibility for Malaysian public service appointment under JPA scheme rules. Second, the accreditation signal is what overseas accreditation bodies typically reciprocate when a MEDIU graduate seeks recognition of their degree in their home country. Third, accreditation determines eligibility for federal funding pathways including PTPTN loans for Malaysian students enrolled in qualifying programmes.

MEDIU maintains its accreditation through periodic MQA review cycles, which include site visits to Plaza Masalam, audit of the e-learning platform, examination of student outcomes data, and review of faculty qualifications. The institution’s continuous accreditation since 2007 is the headline credential signalling regulatory standing.

MEDIU Admissions

MEDIU operates rolling admissions across most programmes, with the principal intake windows in February and additional dates published year-round on the university website. The admissions pipeline is designed around the institutional reality that the bulk of applicants are international and apply remotely.

Entry to Bachelor programmes typically requires SPM with at least five credits including the relevant subjects for the chosen pathway, STPM or A-Level passes, the equivalent Tawjihi or General Secondary Certificate from Arab states, the Indian CBSE 12th, or equivalent international qualifications recognised by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. Faculty of Islamic Sciences applicants may need additional Arabic language proficiency demonstration depending on the chosen specialisation.

Entry to Master’s programmes requires a relevant Bachelor degree from an MQA-accredited or internationally recognised institution, with minimum CGPA thresholds varying by faculty and programme. The Master’s by Research pathway additionally requires a research proposal aligned with available supervisor capacity at the relevant faculty.

Entry to PhD programmes requires a relevant Master’s degree, a research proposal, and supervisor pre-approval. The Faculty of Islamic Sciences PhD pathways are particularly competitive given MEDIU’s standing as one of Malaysia’s principal Arabic-language Islamic studies doctoral institutions.

Application is principally online via mediu.edu.my, with required documentation comprising academic transcripts, identity documents, a personal statement, and English or Arabic language proficiency evidence as relevant. International students applying for the on-campus mode additionally complete the Education Malaysia Global Services student pass application, which runs on its own processing window of approximately three months.

The admissions team is contactable through the contact form on mediu.edu.my and via the live chat function on the institutional website. Specific intake calendars and programme entry requirements are published per faculty on the student admissions portal.

MEDIU’s Pioneering Role in Online Islamic Education

MEDIU’s institutional significance in the Malaysian higher education landscape is best understood through its pioneering position in online Islamic higher education. When MEDIU received its licence in December 2006, online distance learning in Malaysia was operationally established only at Open University Malaysia (founded 2002) and a handful of secular institutions. No Malaysian university was running a primary delivery model of online Islamic studies, and no institution worldwide was operating at MEDIU’s eventual scale of 122 programmes serving 90+ nationalities through e-learning in Sharia, Quran, Hadith, and Arabic.

The institutional design choice to centre delivery on the e-learning platform rather than the physical campus was unusual at the time. The classical model for advanced Islamic studies, particularly at Master’s and PhD level, assumed in-person sustained engagement with senior scholars through residency at institutions such as Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, or Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca. MEDIU’s proposition was that contemporary technology could deliver the same scholarly engagement asynchronously and across borders, opening Islamic higher education to Muslim learners who could not relocate for residential study.

The student demographics that subsequently emerged validate the institutional premise. MEDIU enrols students from more than 90 nationalities, with significant cohorts from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, sub-Saharan Africa (notably Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, and Kenya), the Arab world (notably Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Jordan), Western Muslim diaspora communities in Europe and North America, and Bosnia, Albania, and the broader Balkans. The student profile skews older and more vocationally established than typical Malaysian on-campus enrolment, reflecting the appeal of part-time online study to working professionals, imams, schoolteachers, and mid-career civil servants seeking accredited Islamic qualifications.

Within Malaysia itself, MEDIU’s role is more specialised. The Malaysian student cohort uses MEDIU primarily as an accessible Islamic Sciences pathway for those who cannot leave employment for full-time on-campus residency, and secondarily as the Bachelor of Islamic Banking and Finance route for working professionals in the Halal economy. The institution’s primary contribution to Malaysia’s higher education ecosystem is therefore the export-oriented online Islamic studies cohort, with the domestic Malaysian intake forming a smaller proportion of total enrolment than at conventional private universities.

This export orientation has ecosystem implications. MEDIU’s institutional partnerships extend to universities and education bodies in Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Jordan, supporting student mobility, joint research, and faculty exchange in classical Islamic disciplines. The institutional centre of gravity in Arabic-language scholarship gives MEDIU a different operational profile from the English-medium Islamic studies offerings at IIUM or USIM and supports MEDIU’s role as a node in the global network of Arabic-language Islamic higher education.

How MEDIU Compares to Other Islamic Universities

MEDIU sits within Malaysia’s substantial Islamic higher education sector but occupies a distinctive niche relative to its peers. The principal points of comparison are the public Islamic universities, the private specialist Islamic colleges, and the broader online universities.

Compared to International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), MEDIU is private rather than public, online-first rather than campus-resident, and considerably narrower in faculty footprint. IIUM operates a comprehensive university model with faculties in medicine, law, engineering, architecture, education, economics, and Islamic studies, while MEDIU’s six-faculty structure concentrates on Islamic Sciences, Languages, Education, IT, Finance, and Engineering. IIUM’s campus-residential model and dual-language English-Arabic instruction position it as the flagship Malaysian public Islamic university, while MEDIU operates as the specialist online Islamic studies institution.

Compared to Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), MEDIU is again private rather than public and online-first rather than residential. USIM operates principally on its Nilai campus in Negeri Sembilan with English and Arabic instruction, focusing on integrating Islamic Sciences with conventional disciplines such as medicine, dentistry, and economics. MEDIU’s positioning is narrower and explicitly e-learning-led.

Compared to Kolej Islam Antarabangsa Sultan Ismail Petra (KIAS) in Kelantan, MEDIU is materially larger by student enrolment, holds a fuller faculty range, and operates with a global online cohort rather than the regional Malaysian cohort that typifies KIAS. KIAS’s institutional identity is rooted in northeast Peninsular Malaysian Islamic education tradition, while MEDIU’s identity is explicitly transnational and online.

Compared to University College of MAIWP International (UCMI), MEDIU is the larger and more specialised institution. UCMI operates as a smaller private Islamic university college with a Klang Valley campus base and a domestic Malaysian student profile, while MEDIU’s online model and 90+ nationality intake places it on a different operational scale.

Compared to University College of Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah (UniSHAMS), MEDIU is private rather than state-owned and online rather than campus-resident. UniSHAMS operates as the Kedah state Islamic university college with a campus in Kuala Ketil, while MEDIU operates the borderless online platform from Shah Alam.

The distinguishing feature across all these comparisons is MEDIU’s online delivery model and global cohort. No other Malaysian Islamic university operates principally as an e-learning institution at MEDIU’s scale, and no other Malaysian online university operates principally as an Islamic studies institution. This double specialisation is the institutional moat.

MEDIU Contact and Practical Information

The MEDIU headquarters and on-campus delivery centre is at Tingkat 11, Plaza Masalam, No. 2, Jalan Tengku Ampuan Zabedah E/9E, Seksyen 9, 40100 Shah Alam, Selangor. The official institutional website is mediu.edu.my, with the agent portal for fee schedules and detailed programme listings hosted at online.mediu.edu.my and the news portal at news.mediu.edu.my. The Faculty of Islamic Sciences maintains a separate site at fis.mediu.edu.my.

Admissions enquiries should be directed through the contact form on mediu.edu.my and the live chat function on the institutional website. International applicants should factor in additional lead time for student pass processing through Education Malaysia Global Services if opting for the on-campus mode; online applicants do not require a Malaysian student pass.

Intakes run on a rolling basis with February as a principal annual window. Applicants may submit applications year-round and will be allocated to the next available intake.

In summary: Al-Madinah International University (MEDIU) is Malaysia’s pioneer online Islamic university, founded 2006 in Shah Alam, Selangor under licence KPT/JPS/DFT/US/B22, operating 122 academic programmes (94 fully MQA-accredited) across six faculties with a centre of gravity in Sharia, Quran and Sunnah, and Arabic Language, serving more than 90 nationalities through online delivery, with bachelor fees from approximately RM 13,500 total and a 20% early-payment discount.

Sources: Al-Madinah International University - Wikipedia; MEDIU Official Site; MQA Register listing; MEDIU Recognition and Accreditation; MEDIU Faculty of Islamic Sciences; MEDIU Bachelor Programmes; MEDIU Programs Fees Agent Portal; StudyMalaysia MEDIU profile; Times Higher Education MEDIU.