Kolej Universiti Saito

About Kolej Universiti Saito (Saito University College)

Kolej Universiti Saito, branded internationally as Saito University College, is a private university college in Petaling Jaya, in the state of Selangor, in the central Klang Valley region of Peninsular Malaysia. The institution was founded in 1988 by Mr. Tetsuo Saito, a Japanese educator who arrived in Malaysia to share Japanese language, design culture, and the discipline of graphic design as a tertiary subject. The original entity, Saito Academy of Graphic Design, made institutional history by introducing what is recorded as Malaysia’s first Diploma in Graphic Design.

The institution upgraded to university college status in late 2017, taking the formal Malay name Kolej Universiti Saito and the English brand Saito University College. The upgrade allowed the institution to confer bachelor’s degrees in its own name, expanded the teaching faculty, and triggered the rollout of additional honours programmes across design, business, security management, and culinary arts. The university college operates three internal schools: the School of Design (the founding school), the School of Management (established 2012 as Saito Business School), and the Saito Security Academy (established 2008).

Saito University College is registered with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) under institution code 316 and is approved by the Ministry of Higher Education. The university college serves a student body whose institutional reporting indicates more than 2,000 graduates produced annually across its three schools combined. The current institutional positioning centres on creative arts and design, with mid-priced fees that sit below the specialist art-school premium of The One Academy in Sunway, and a distinct Japanese-Malaysian educational heritage that traces directly to founder Tetsuo Saito’s vision.

Mr. Saito has since passed away, but the institutional culture continues to reflect his entrepreneurial and craft-discipline orientation. Saito’s marketing materials emphasise practical studio training, design-industry portfolio development, and a willingness to compete on price and accessibility rather than on the international-branch-campus prestige model used by larger Klang Valley universities. The current operating model leans toward vocational diploma-to-degree progression rather than research-intensive postgraduate output, although the institution does run the Master of Business Administration, Master of Law Enforcement, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Management) at postgraduate level.

Saito Location and Campus in Petaling Jaya

The Saito University College main campus is at 18, Jalan Tengah, PJ New Town Centre, Section 52, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. PJ New Town, also referred to as PJ Old Town’s commercial successor, sits in central Petaling Jaya immediately adjacent to the Petaling Jaya City Council (Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya, MBPJ) building, a known civic landmark.

The campus is reachable by Klang Valley public transport. Taman Jaya LRT station on the Kelana Jaya Line is roughly 10 to 15 minutes on foot or one short feeder-bus stop from the campus, which gives students from across the LRT network direct access without a car. The Federal Highway connects the area to Kuala Lumpur city centre to the east and Subang and Shah Alam to the west, and grab and bus access is straightforward at the PJ New Town interchange.

A secondary campus block operates at Level 17, The Bousteador, No. 10, Jalan PJU 7/6, Mutiara Damansara, 47800 Petaling Jaya. This corporate-tower extension supports specific programme overflow and provides a more contemporary office-tower learning environment in the Mutiara Damansara commercial belt, near the Curve and IPC shopping centres and the Mutiara Damansara MRT station on the Kajang Line.

The PJ New Town location places Saito within the older, more grounded commercial district of Petaling Jaya rather than within a campus-style green-belt setting. Students live in nearby apartment accommodation, hostels arranged through Saito’s student services unit, or commute from across the Klang Valley. The compact urban-block format keeps studio facilities, computer labs, lecture halls, and administrative offices within a single multi-storey shophouse-style campus footprint, which is consistent with the urban design-school model used by competitors such as Dasein Academy of Art (Old Klang Road) and contrasts with the larger landed-campus model of Taylor’s University in Subang Jaya or Sunway University in Bandar Sunway.

Saito Programmes Across Design, Business, and Security

Saito University College organises its academic offerings across three internal schools, with a clear gravitational centre in the School of Design and complementary capacity in the School of Management and the Saito Security Academy.

The School of Design is the institutional flagship and traces directly to the original 1988 Saito Academy of Graphic Design. It runs the Foundation in Design as the SPM-to-degree pre-university entry point, the Diploma in Graphic Design (a 2.5-year programme widely cited as Malaysia’s first such qualification), the Diploma in Multimedia Design, the Bachelor of Design (Graphic Design) (Hons), and the Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) (Hons). The honours degrees combine studio-based portfolio work with industry placement and final-year capstone projects.

The School of Management runs the Foundation in Business Studies, Diploma in Business Management, Diploma in Human Resource Management, Diploma in Logistics Management, Bachelor of Human Resource Management (Hons), Bachelor of Business Management (Hons), Bachelor of Business (Digital Marketing) (Hons), Bachelor of Business in Logistics Management and E-Business (Hons), and Bachelor of Business in Logistics & Supply Chain Management (Hons). The school was established in 2012 as Saito Business School.

The Saito Security Academy, established 2008, runs the Foundation in Police Science, Diploma in Security Management, and Bachelor of Arts in Law Enforcement (Investigation) (Hons). This vocational-security cluster is unusual in the Klang Valley private higher education landscape and is a distinguishing programme line for Saito.

A culinary and hospitality track adds the Diploma in Culinary Arts, Diploma in Hotel Management, and Diploma in Pastry Arts, run alongside the three principal schools.

At postgraduate level, Saito offers the Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Law Enforcement, and the Doctor of Philosophy (Management). Postgraduate enrolment is modest by comparison with the diploma and bachelor’s intake, and the institution’s postgraduate profile remains business-and-management focused rather than spread across design or creative-arts research.

The breadth of programme coverage at Saito reflects an evolution beyond the original graphic-design-only mandate. The institution today serves both creative-track students seeking design portfolio training and a separate vocational cohort routed into hospitality, business administration, security, and law enforcement.

Saito Fees and Tuition

Saito University College does not publish a single comprehensive per-year tuition table on its public-facing website. Programme-level fees are quoted on request through the admissions office and on third-party education portals. The available fee data points and fee range published across recognised aggregator platforms are summarised below.

Programme	Duration	Total Fee Range (RM)
Foundation in Design	1 year	Contact admissions
Foundation in Business Studies	1 year	Contact admissions
Diploma in Graphic Design	2.5 years	~21,000 to 30,000
Diploma in Multimedia Design	2.5 years	~21,000 to 30,000
Diploma in Business Management	2 years	~18,000 to 25,000
Diploma in Culinary Arts	2 years	~25,000 to 35,000
Diploma in Security Management	2 years	Contact admissions
Bachelor of Design (Graphic Design) (Hons)	3 years	~45,000 to 55,000
Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) (Hons)	3 years	~45,000 to 55,000
Bachelor of Business Management (Hons)	3 years	~35,000 to 45,000
Bachelor of Human Resource Management (Hons)	3 years	~35,000 to 45,000
Bachelor of Arts Law Enforcement (Investigation) (Hons)	3 years	Contact admissions

Fee figures are sourced from EduAdvisor, EasyUni, StudyMalaysia.com, and Uni Enrol programme listings as of April 2026 and are quoted for Malaysian students. International student fees run on a separate schedule. The aggregator-published undergraduate fee range across Saito programmes has been reported in the RM 21,000 to RM 55,000 total band.

The Bachelor of Design (Graphic Design) (Hons) and Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) (Hons) at the upper end of the schedule remain materially below the equivalent fee load at The One Academy, which awards a UK degree in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire and operates at a meaningful premium. The Saito proposition for fee-conscious creative arts students is essentially: a recognised honours degree in graphic or digital media design at roughly half to two-thirds the cost of TOA, in the same Klang Valley catchment.

A hostel deposit of RM 680 applies for students taking institutional accommodation. Saito runs a Sabah and Sarawak student promotion that waives this deposit and provides up to RM 1,000 in fee waivers and a one-way flight ticket. A diploma-to-degree continuation pathway offers a 100% tuition fee waiver for qualifying students continuing from a Saito diploma into a Saito bachelor’s degree. Application-channel discounts (for example through the EduAdvisor partner channel) have been published at up to RM 6,300 in additional savings.

PTPTN study loans are accepted for eligible Malaysian students on accredited Saito programmes. Bursaries and merit scholarships are managed by the Saito admissions office and the current scholarship schedule should be requested at info@saito.edu.my for the specific intake of interest.

All quoted figures cover tuition only and exclude application fees, registration fees, hostel rental, materials, design software licences (where students are required to bring their own equipment), and personal expenses. Design students typically incur additional materials and equipment costs given the studio-based curriculum.

Saito Accreditation and MQA Recognition

Kolej Universiti Saito is registered with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) under institution code 316. The MQA institutional entry is recorded as ‘Kolej Universiti Saito (Previously Known As: Saito College)’ on the Malaysian Qualifications Register at www2.mqa.gov.my. This institutional registration is the prerequisite for the university college to recruit students, confer awards, and operate as a private higher education provider under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996.

Individual Saito programmes hold programme-level MQA accreditation references that are listed on the Malaysian Qualifications Register. Diploma and bachelor’s-level programmes carry full accreditation under specific MQA codes that students should verify via the MQR before enrolment, particularly for the Diploma in Graphic Design, the Bachelor of Design (Graphic Design) (Hons), the Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) (Hons), and the Bachelor of Human Resource Management (Hons), which represent the highest-volume student intakes.

The institution is approved by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), which is the prerequisite for PTPTN study loan eligibility, EMGS international student visa sponsorship, and recognition by Malaysian government employers and the Public Service Department (Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam, JPA) for graduate hiring purposes.

The Saito Security Academy programmes (Diploma in Security Management, Bachelor of Arts in Law Enforcement (Investigation) (Hons)) operate within the same MQA institutional accreditation umbrella, with programme-specific recognition for police-science vocational training. The culinary and hospitality programmes (Diploma in Culinary Arts, Diploma in Hotel Management, Diploma in Pastry Arts) similarly hold programme-level MQA recognition.

University college status, distinct from full university status, restricts Saito’s capacity in specific directions. University colleges in Malaysia are typically constrained on doctoral-programme rollout and on the breadth of senate-approved degree fields, although Saito has secured the Doctor of Philosophy (Management) at postgraduate level. Future progression to full university status would depend on Saito meeting the MQA’s research output, faculty-qualification ratio, and programme-breadth thresholds set out under the standard university-status assessment.

Saito Admissions

Saito University College runs rolling admissions across most programmes, with intakes typically aligned to January, March, May, July, and September starts. Foundation and diploma intakes are more frequent than bachelor’s intakes given the larger feeder cohort.

Entry to Foundation in Design and Diploma in Graphic Design requires SPM with a minimum number of credit passes (typically 3 to 5 credits including a pass in Bahasa Malaysia and English) or O-Level equivalent. Portfolio submission may be requested for design-track applicants and an in-house aptitude or interview component is sometimes used.

Entry to the Bachelor of Design (Graphic Design) (Hons) and Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) (Hons) requires either Saito’s own foundation programme completion at the required CGPA, an STPM or A-Level science/arts stream pass, a Diploma in Graphic Design or related qualification at the required CGPA, or a UEC pass with the relevant subject combination. Portfolio submission is standard for direct-entry applicants.

Entry to business and human resource management bachelor programmes runs on standard pre-university qualifications: Foundation, STPM, A-Level, Matrikulasi, UEC, or a relevant diploma at the required CGPA.

Entry to the law enforcement bachelor programme carries additional vocational suitability criteria and the Saito Security Academy admissions process may include physical fitness or background-check elements consistent with the police-science orientation.

Postgraduate admissions for the MBA, Master of Law Enforcement, and PhD (Management) require a relevant bachelor’s qualification (and master’s qualification for doctoral entry), CV, statement of purpose, and where required a research proposal aligned to a Saito faculty supervisor.

Application contact: info@saito.edu.my and the central switchboard on +603-7956 0250. The university website is saito.edu.my. International applicants should factor in additional lead time for the EMGS student visa pass, which runs on its own processing window separate from Saito’s internal admissions decision.

Standard application documentation includes academic transcripts, identity card or passport copy, passport-size photographs, the completed Saito application form, the application fee, and (for design programme applicants) a portfolio. International applicants additionally submit English-language qualification evidence and EMGS visa documentation.

Saito’s Japanese Heritage and Creative Industries Specialty

The Japanese-Malaysian heritage of Saito University College is a distinguishing institutional characteristic. Founder Tetsuo Saito arrived in Malaysia in the 1980s with the dual mission of teaching the Japanese language and the discipline of Japanese graphic design as a formal tertiary subject. The institutional choice to pioneer a Diploma in Graphic Design in Malaysia in 1988 was a direct expression of that mission: at the time, formal graphic design education in Malaysia was almost entirely absent from the private and public university sectors, with creative training largely confined to fine art and architecture programmes.

The Japanese design tradition that Mr. Saito brought into the curriculum emphasises typographic discipline, grid-based layout, restraint in colour application, and craft-level attention to print production. These principles continue to shape the studio teaching philosophy at the School of Design, although the contemporary curriculum has expanded to include digital media, motion graphics, web design, branding, and user-experience subjects to reflect industry evolution.

The Japanese-Malaysian institutional identity also expresses itself in the entrepreneurial ethos that the university college markets externally. Mr. Saito’s reputation as an entrepreneur-educator who built the institution from a small graphic design academy to a degree-conferring university college over roughly three decades is part of the story Saito tells prospective students about its institutional character. The marketing claim of more than 300 design awards won by Saito students and alumni cumulatively, while not independently verified by central tabulation, reflects the institution’s emphasis on competitive design portfolio output as a measure of programme quality.

Within the Malaysian creative industries, Saito alumni populate roles across advertising agencies, print and digital design studios, in-house brand teams at corporates and consumer brands, multimedia and animation production houses, and the broader visual-communications labour market in the Klang Valley and Penang creative belts. The institution does not publish detailed graduate destination statistics, and prospective students should request specific cohort employment data from the admissions office where this is decision-relevant.

The Japanese heritage at Saito does not extend into formal Japanese-university partnership in the way that, for example, Help University operates UK partnerships or INTI International University operates US transfer pathways. The Japanese link at Saito is principally cultural and historical (founder lineage and design-discipline orientation) rather than structural (joint-degree programmes with Japanese universities or formal exchange arrangements at scale).

How Saito Compares to Other Creative Arts Schools

Saito University College sits within the Klang Valley creative arts cluster alongside three principal direct competitors: The One Academy (TOA), Dasein Academy of Art, and First City University College.

The One Academy in Sunway is the most established and most prestigious of the specialist Klang Valley art and design schools. TOA awards a UK degree in collaboration with the University of Hertfordshire, runs an internationally recognised animation, illustration, and advertising design portfolio, and operates at a fee premium that places its bachelor-level programmes meaningfully above Saito’s. Industry placement at major advertising agencies and animation studios in Malaysia, Singapore, and beyond is a TOA strength. The trade-off is fee load: TOA programmes can run materially higher than the Saito Bachelor of Design schedule.

Dasein Academy of Art at Millerz Square in Old Klang Road specialises in fine art, illustration, animation, graphic design, and interior design. Established in 1996 by a group of creative-industry educators, Dasein leans more heavily into fine art and illustration than Saito does, and has built a reputation for high graduate employment within three months of completion. Dasein and Saito occupy similar mid-market positions on fees, with the principal differentiation being Dasein’s stronger fine art and illustration profile versus Saito’s graphic design and digital media core.

First City University College in PJ runs a broader curriculum spanning design, hospitality, business, and engineering, with creative arts programmes that compete with Saito at the diploma and bachelor’s level. First City is larger by total student headcount and offers a wider portfolio of non-design subjects, while Saito remains more focused on design as its founding discipline.

For prospective creative arts students weighing the four institutions, the practical decision matrix comes down to four variables. Discipline fit: Saito for graphic design and digital media, Dasein for fine art and illustration, TOA for international branding and advertising design, First City for design students who want a broader university campus experience. Fee budget: Saito and Dasein at the accessible end, First City in the mid range, TOA at the premium. Degree-awarding body: TOA awards a UK degree, Saito awards a Malaysian honours degree under its own MQA-accredited curriculum, Dasein typically partners with UK award-givers for some of its bachelor’s-level programmes. Campus character: TOA in the Sunway design-quarter setting, Saito in PJ New Town, Dasein at Millerz Square in Old Klang Road, First City on a more conventional university campus.

Saito’s specific institutional pitch is the combination of pioneering Diploma in Graphic Design heritage (1988), Japanese founder lineage, central PJ accessibility via Taman Jaya LRT, mid-market fee positioning, and the diploma-to-degree continuation path with the 100% tuition fee waiver pathway for qualifying internal progression. For students whose top decision criteria are graphic design discipline focus, Klang Valley access, and fee accessibility, Saito University College is a credible mid-market choice.

Saito Contact and Practical Information

Saito University College’s main administrative contact details are listed below for prospective student enquiries.

• Main campus address: 18, Jalan Tengah, PJ New Town Centre, Section 52, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
• Secondary campus: Level 17, The Bousteador, No. 10, Jalan PJU 7/6, Mutiara Damansara, 47800 Petaling Jaya
• Email: info@saito.edu.my
• Telephone: +603-7956 0250
• Website: saito.edu.my
• MQA institution code: 316 (Kolej Universiti Saito, previously known as Saito College)
• Nearest LRT: Taman Jaya, Kelana Jaya Line (10 to 15 minutes on foot or short feeder bus)
• Nearest MRT (secondary campus): Mutiara Damansara, Kajang Line

For the current intake calendar, programme-specific fee schedule, scholarship eligibility, and international applicant procedures, prospective students should email info@saito.edu.my with the specific programme of interest. International applicants should request the EMGS visa documentation pack and the international fee schedule at the same enquiry.

Saito University College is the headline private creative-arts university college in Petaling Jaya, serving the central Selangor catchment within the Klang Valley. Within the wider private universities sector, Saito occupies a distinct mid-market design-focused position with its 1988 Japanese-Malaysian founding heritage, central PJ New Town location, three-school structure (design, business, security), and Bachelor of Design (Graphic Design) (Hons) and Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) (Hons) honours programmes at total fees in the RM 45,000 to RM 55,000 band.

In summary: Kolej Universiti Saito (Saito University College) is a private design-focused university college in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, founded in 1988 by Japanese educator Tetsuo Saito as the Saito Academy of Graphic Design, elevated to university college status in late 2017, registered with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency under institution code 316, with main campus at PJ New Town Centre, three internal schools spanning design, management, and security, undergraduate fees in the RM 21,000 to RM 55,000 total band, and a continuing institutional identity rooted in the Japanese graphic-design tradition that founder Tetsuo Saito brought to Malaysian tertiary education.