Asia Metropolitan University

About Asia Metropolitan University

Asia Metropolitan University, generally known as AMU, is a private health sciences university in Malaysia. The institution traces its origin to Masterskill College of Health Sciences, founded in 1997 in Taman Kemacahaya, Cheras, Selangor by Datuk Seri R. B. Tan. Masterskill grew across the 2000s into one of the largest private nursing and allied health training providers in the country, listing on Bursa Malaysia in 2010 under the parent Masterskill Education Group Berhad. Following a turbulent period of corporate restructuring and ownership change, the institution was upgraded to full university status and rebranded as Asia Metropolitan University in 2012.

The current main campus is located at No. 6, Jalan Lembah, Bandar Seri Alam, 81750 Masai, Johor Bahru, in the state of Johor. A branch campus operates inside the University of Cyberjaya tower at Persiaran Bestari, Cyber 11, 63000 Cyberjaya, Selangor. The original Cheras site has been wound down as part of the post-2012 restructuring, and the Johor Bahru campus now anchors the institution’s MBBS, pharmacy, nursing, and allied health teaching, while Cyberjaya hosts the smaller business, IT, accounting, and computer science portfolio.

AMU is registered with the Ministry of Higher Education under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and lists separate Malaysian Qualifications Register entries for the Johor Bahru main campus and the Cyberjaya branch campus. The MBBS programme delivered from Johor Bahru is recognised by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) and listed in the Second Schedule of the Medical Act 1971. The institution operates two academic faculties: the School of Medical and Health Sciences and the School of Business and Law. The total active programme count exceeds 30 across diploma, bachelor, master, and doctoral levels.

The institutional positioning of AMU within the private health sciences market is shaped by its Masterskill lineage. While metropolitan competitors such as IMU University and MAHSA University emerged in the 1990s and early 2000s as research-oriented health sciences institutions with premium fee structures, Masterskill was built specifically as a high-volume producer of registered nurses for the Malaysian and regional healthcare workforce. That nursing-led heritage carries through into AMU’s current portfolio, where nursing and allied health diploma and degree programmes remain the bulk of student enrolment alongside the smaller MBBS and pharmacy intakes.

AMU Location and Campus

Asia Metropolitan University operates from two campuses, both registered separately with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency.

The Johor Bahru main campus at Bandar Seri Alam, Masai, is the principal teaching site. The campus footprint of approximately 50,000 square feet houses the medical school, pharmacy school, nursing school, allied health programmes, anatomy and pathology laboratories, library, simulation suites, and student services. Bandar Seri Alam is a township roughly 20 kilometres east of Johor Bahru city centre, accessible via the Pasir Gudang Highway, with the Senai International Airport approximately 45 minutes away. Singapore and the Causeway are within an hour’s drive for cross-border students.

The Cyberjaya branch campus is housed inside the University of Cyberjaya building at Unit 3, Level 1, Persiaran Bestari, Cyber 11, 63000 Cyberjaya, Selangor. This branch hosts the business, accounting, IT, and computer science portfolio and operates on a smaller floor-plate co-located arrangement rather than a standalone campus building. The MQA register lists the Cyberjaya branch under a separate entry from the Johor Bahru main campus, reflecting the post-2012 governance restructuring that retained Cyberjaya as a discrete operating unit.

The original Cheras campus in Taman Kemacahaya, Cheras, Selangor, was the historical Masterskill College of Health Sciences site from 1997 onwards. The Cheras operation has been wound down as part of the institution’s restructuring, and prospective students should not visit the old G-8, Jalan Kemacahaya 11 address for current admissions enquiries. Various secondary education listing sites and older directory pages still reference the Cheras address; the authoritative current campus information is on the official AMU website at amu.edu.my.

The geographic split between Johor Bahru (medical and health sciences) and Cyberjaya (business and IT) reflects a sensible operational consolidation: medical training requires hospital partnerships and clinical posting capacity, both of which Bandar Seri Alam supports through the Hospital Sultanah Aminah and Hospital Sultan Ismail network in Johor, while the business and IT portfolio benefits from co-location within the Cyberjaya tech corridor.

Asia Metropolitan University Programmes

AMU organises its academic offerings across two schools, with a clear gravitational centre in health sciences inherited from the Masterskill era.

The School of Medical and Health Sciences is the larger of the two schools and runs the bulk of AMU’s degree-level programmes:

• The five-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), delivered at the Johor Bahru campus, is the institution’s flagship programme. The MBBS curriculum follows the standard pre-clinical and clinical structure, with clinical postings at Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru, Hospital Sultan Ismail, and selected district hospitals in Johor.
• The four-year Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) is recognised by the Pharmacy Board Malaysia for provisional registration following pre-registration training.
• The Bachelor of Nursing Science (Hons) and the Diploma in Nursing are accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency and recognised by Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia (LJM).
• The allied health degree portfolio includes the Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Hons), Bachelor in Medical Imaging, Bachelor in Environmental Health, Bachelor in Occupational Safety and Health, and Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences.
• Diploma programmes cover Nursing, Physiotherapy, Medical Imaging, Pharmacy, Paramedic Sciences, and several other allied health pathways. The diploma portfolio is the volume engine of the institution and reflects the Masterskill heritage of producing registered nurses, paramedics, and allied health technicians at scale.

The School of Business and Law runs at the Cyberjaya campus and offers the BBA, Bachelor of Accounting, hospitality and tourism management, IT, and computer science programmes alongside the MBA and DBA at postgraduate level.

The Foundation in Science and Foundation in Business programmes serve as pre-university entry pathways for SPM, O-Level, and equivalent qualification holders progressing into the degree programmes.

Postgraduate offerings include Master of Public Health, Master of Business Administration, Master of Education, and the Doctor of Business Administration. Postgraduate research supervision in nursing and health sciences is available subject to supervisor capacity. Programme MQA codes are listed against each entry on the Malaysian Qualifications Register and should be verified at mqa.gov.my before commitment.

AMU Fees and Tuition

Asia Metropolitan University publishes programme-level fees that reflect the resource intensity of each discipline. Diploma programmes sit at the lower end, with bachelor degrees in the middle, and the MBBS at the top of the schedule.

Programme	Approximate Annual Fee (RM)	Approximate Programme Total (RM)
MBBS (5 years)	12,000 to 16,000	60,000 to 80,000
Bachelor of Pharmacy Hons (4 years)	18,000 to 25,000	72,000 to 100,000
Bachelor of Nursing Science Hons (4 years)	15,000 to 20,000	60,000 to 80,000
Bachelor of Physiotherapy Hons (4 years)	14,000 to 18,000	56,000 to 72,000
Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (3 years)	14,000 to 18,000	42,000 to 54,000
Diploma in Nursing (3 years)	11,000 to 14,000	33,000 to 42,000
Diploma in Medical Imaging (3 years)	11,000 to 14,000	33,000 to 42,000
Foundation in Science	10,000 to 12,000	10,000 to 12,000
BBA / Bachelor of Accounting (3 years)	12,000 to 15,000	36,000 to 45,000

The MBBS at AMU is positioned at the lower end of the private medical school fee spectrum in Malaysia. The total programme cost of approximately RM 60,000 to 80,000 across the five-year curriculum compares with RM 250,000 to RM 350,000 at metropolitan private MBBS providers and beyond RM 500,000 at branch-campus competitors such as Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia. The pricing differential reflects the institution’s mid-market positioning, the Johor Bahru operating cost base relative to the Klang Valley, and the legacy fee structure inherited from the Masterskill era.

Diploma in Nursing at approximately RM 11,000 to 14,000 per year and Bachelor of Nursing Science (Hons) at RM 15,000 to 20,000 per year position AMU as one of the more accessible entry points for students seeking accredited nursing qualifications recognised by Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia.

The fee figures above are indicative based on the most recent published schedules. Hostel, food, books, clinical attire, instruments (particularly for medical and pharmacy students), transport, and personal expenses are charged separately. Prospective students should request the precise current fee schedule directly from the AMU admissions office, as the published rates are subject to revision and international student fees run on separate schedules.

Asia Metropolitan University Accreditation and MQA Recognition

Asia Metropolitan University is registered with the Ministry of Higher Education under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and is listed in the Malaysian Qualifications Register through two separate entries: one for the Johor Bahru main campus and one for the Cyberjaya branch campus. Both campuses operate under the same university status conferred in 2012.

The headline accreditation profile is anchored on the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) recognition of the MBBS programme, which is listed in the Second Schedule of the Medical Act 1971. This recognition is the prerequisite for AMU MBBS graduates to register with the MMC, undertake the mandatory two-year housemanship in Ministry of Health hospitals, and progress to provisional registration as Medical Officers. MMC recognition is reviewed periodically and is contingent on the institution maintaining the regulator’s standards on student-to-teacher ratios, clinical posting capacity, faculty qualifications, and assessment integrity.

International recognition of the AMU MBBS extends to the World Directory of Medical Schools (WDOMS), which lists the programme and signals eligibility for medical licensing examinations in many jurisdictions worldwide. The MBBS is also acknowledged by the National Medical Commission of India (formerly the Medical Council of India), the Maldives Medical and Dental Council, and the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, which supports the international student recruitment pipeline from those countries.

The nursing programmes carry dual accreditation from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) for academic recognition and from Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia (LJM) for professional registration eligibility. The Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) is recognised by the Pharmacy Board Malaysia for provisional registration following pre-registration training. Allied health programmes are individually MQA-accredited with relevant professional body recognition where applicable.

AMU also holds institutional recognition from the Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC), an international quality assurance body operating outside the Malaysian regulatory framework. ASIC recognition is supplementary to and does not replace MQA accreditation, which remains the binding domestic accreditation standard.

Programme-specific MQA codes can be verified directly at the Malaysian Qualifications Register at mqa.gov.my. Prospective students should confirm the accreditation status of any specific programme before enrolment, as individual programme accreditations are reviewed and renewed on independent cycles.

AMU Admissions

Asia Metropolitan University operates rolling admissions across most programmes, with separate intake calendars for the MBBS programme, which carries stricter MMC entry requirements.

Entry to the MBBS programme at the Johor Bahru campus requires either STPM with strong passes in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics or Mathematics; A-Level passes in the same science subjects; an AMU Foundation in Science completion at the required CGPA; or an equivalent qualification accepted by the MMC such as the Indian CBSE 12th, Sri Lankan A-Levels, or relevant matriculation and pre-medical qualifications. The MMC sets a minimum entry standard that admitting institutions must observe.

Entry to the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) requires science-stream pre-university qualifications and is also subject to the Pharmacy Board Malaysia’s minimum entry standards.

Entry to the Bachelor of Nursing Science (Hons) and the Diploma in Nursing requires SPM or equivalent passes including Mathematics and at least one science subject, in line with Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia’s minimum entry requirements. The Diploma in Nursing has historically been a high-volume intake at AMU and the Masterskill predecessor and remains the principal entry route for school-leavers seeking a nursing qualification.

The Foundation in Science and Foundation in Business programmes accept SPM, O-Level, or equivalent qualifications with the relevant subject passes for the chosen pathway.

Postgraduate admissions run year-round. MBA, Master of Public Health, and DBA applicants should hold a relevant bachelor’s qualification with the required CGPA, identify a supervisor where applicable, and submit a research proposal for thesis-track programmes.

International applicants should factor in additional lead time for the Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) student visa pass, which runs on its own processing window separately from AMU’s internal admissions decision. Across all programmes, AMU runs intakes that typically align with the Malaysian academic year, with the MBBS intake running on the more constrained calendar required by clinical posting scheduling.

Asia Metropolitan University’s Medical and Allied Health Specialty

Asia Metropolitan University’s defining institutional characteristic is its specialisation in nursing, medicine, pharmacy, and allied health. This is not a generalist private university with a health faculty bolted on; it is a health sciences institution with a small business and IT portfolio attached. The specialisation traces directly to the Masterskill heritage.

Masterskill College of Health Sciences was founded in 1997 specifically to address the chronic shortage of registered nurses in the Malaysian and regional healthcare workforce. Across the 2000s, Masterskill became the single largest private-sector producer of registered nurses in Malaysia, with diploma graduate cohorts running into the thousands per year at peak. The 2010 Bursa Malaysia listing of Masterskill Education Group Berhad capitalised on the demographic and demand-side fundamentals of healthcare workforce expansion across Asia. While the corporate trajectory ran into difficulties in subsequent years and the institution underwent restructuring before becoming AMU in 2012, the academic core, the clinical training relationships, and the alumni network in the nursing and allied health workforce remained intact.

The current AMU portfolio reflects this lineage. The Diploma in Nursing remains a high-volume programme. The Bachelor of Nursing Science (Hons) provides a degree-level pathway for diploma holders or direct school-leavers. The allied health degrees and diplomas in physiotherapy, medical imaging, environmental health, occupational safety and health, paramedic sciences, and biomedical sciences round out the portfolio. The MBBS and Bachelor of Pharmacy programmes were added in the post-2012 university-status era and broadened the clinical training scope into doctor and pharmacist preparation.

For prospective students, the institutional specialisation matters in two practical ways. First, the faculty and clinical training infrastructure are oriented around healthcare delivery, which means peer cohort, laboratory facilities, simulation suites, and hospital relationships are structured for clinical and allied health training rather than as a generic university experience. Second, the institutional brand within the Malaysian healthcare workforce, particularly in nursing, retains substantial recognition through the Masterskill alumni network, which can carry weight in clinical employment and progression after graduation.

How AMU Compares to Other Medical-Focused Private Universities

The private medical and health sciences segment in Malaysia includes several institutions with overlapping but distinct positioning. AMU sits alongside IMU University, MAHSA University, Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia, AIMST University, and University of Cyberjaya in this market.

IMU University (formerly International Medical University), founded 1992 in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, is the established premium player in the Malaysian private health sciences market. IMU runs a full medical, dental, pharmacy, and allied health portfolio with the deepest research output among the private medical schools and the highest fee structure, with MBBS total programme cost in the RM 350,000 to 450,000 range.

MAHSA University, based in Bandar Saujana Putra, Selangor, runs a broader degree mix including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, business, engineering, and law. MAHSA is positioned as a mid-market alternative to IMU with a comparable healthcare focus but a wider non-health portfolio.

Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, is the Malaysian branch campus of the UK’s Newcastle University and awards a UK MBBS degree. NUMed sits at the top of the price spectrum with total programme cost beyond RM 500,000 and recruits primarily from the upper-middle-class and international student segments.

AIMST University in Bedong, Kedah, founded 2001, is the only fully-fledged private medical university in northern Malaysia. AIMST runs MBBS, BDS, pharmacy, and allied health programmes from a 230-acre campus at MBBS total cost of RM 319,750. AIMST and AMU share a similar mid-market price positioning but differ in geographic catchment (northern Malaysia versus Johor) and institutional heritage (MIC-founded versus Masterskill-derived).

University of Cyberjaya (UoC) in Cyberjaya, Selangor, runs MBBS, pharmacy, and allied health programmes from a Klang Valley campus. UoC and AMU operate the Cyberjaya building together as a shared address but as separate institutions, with AMU occupying a single floor of the UoC tower for its branch campus operation.

AMU’s competitive positioning against this peer group rests on three variables. First, price: AMU’s MBBS at approximately RM 60,000 to 80,000 total programme cost is among the lowest in the recognised private MBBS market, materially below IMU, NUMed, and AIMST. Second, nursing and allied health depth: the Masterskill heritage gives AMU a deeper bench in nursing and allied health programmes than most general private medical schools, which is the principal reason students from healthcare worker backgrounds gravitate to the institution. Third, geographic positioning: the Johor Bahru main campus serves the Johor and southern Malaysia catchment as well as cross-border students from Singapore and Indonesia in a way that the Klang Valley-centred competitors do not. Each of the three variables matters differently to different prospective students.

Asia Metropolitan University Contact and Practical Information

Prospective students and parents can reach AMU through the following channels:

Johor Bahru main campus: No. 6, Jalan Lembah, Bandar Seri Alam, 81750 Masai, Johor Bahru, Johor.

Cyberjaya branch campus: Unit 3, Level 1, Persiaran Bestari, Cyber 11, 63000 Cyberjaya, Selangor.

Website: amu.edu.my

The official admissions office handles enquiries on programme intake calendars, fee schedules, scholarship availability, and international student visa documentation. Prospective MBBS applicants should request the current MMC entry standards and the clinical posting hospital network alongside the standard fee and accommodation information.

Asia Metropolitan University sits within the broader Selangor private universities and Johor private universities groupings depending on which campus is the relevant point of reference. Within the private universities sector, AMU’s distinctive positioning is the combination of nursing-and-allied-health institutional depth from the Masterskill lineage, the MBBS programme at the lower end of the private medical school fee spectrum, and the cross-border Johor Bahru location with proximity to Singapore.

Asia Metropolitan University is a private health sciences university tracing its lineage to Masterskill College of Health Sciences (1997), upgraded to university status in 2012, with its main campus in Bandar Seri Alam, Johor Bahru and a branch campus inside the University of Cyberjaya tower in Selangor, an MMC-recognised MBBS programme at approximately RM 60,000 to 80,000 total cost, and an institutional specialisation in nursing, allied health, pharmacy, and medicine that distinguishes it from generalist private universities in the Malaysian market.