Quest International University (QIU)

About Quest International University (QIU)

Quest International University, commonly referred to as QIU and formerly known as Quest International University Perak (QIUP), is a private comprehensive university located in Ipoh, the capital of Perak state in Malaysia. The institution was established on 12 June 2008 under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and began full operations as a university in 2011, having been upgraded from initial university college status to full university status that year.

QIU is jointly owned by Global Integrated Training Associates Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the QI Group founded by Dato’ Sri Dr Vijay Eswaran, and the State Government of Perak through equity participation. Global Integrated Training Associates was formerly known as Blair Education Services Sdn Bhd, with the corporate vehicle renamed during the QI Group’s consolidation of its education investments. Dato’ Sri Dr Vijay Eswaran, the executive chairman of the QI Group, serves as Quest International University’s University Council Chairman. The QI Group is a multinational conglomerate with presence in more than 120 countries spanning real estate, retail, hospitality, lifestyle, financial services, and education.

The institution operates 6 faculties: the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Business, Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, Faculty of Integrated Life Sciences, and Faculty of Engineering and Computing. Across these faculties, QIU runs 32 undergraduate programmes alongside foundation, diploma, and postgraduate offerings, all accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency. The university is registered as institution 577 on the MQA register and lists individual programme accreditations on its public records page.

QIU’s institutional positioning is distinctive in two respects. First, it is the only private full university headquartered in Ipoh. Within Perak state, the only other public-facing private higher education institution of comparable scale is Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) in Tronoh, but UTP is a specialist engineering and technology university tied to the national oil company. QIU, by contrast, runs comprehensive coverage across medicine, pharmacy, business, education, life sciences, and engineering. Second, the equity participation of the Perak state government gives QIU a public-private partnership structure that few other private universities in Malaysia share, reflecting a deliberate state policy to anchor tertiary education capacity in Perak.

QIU Location and Campus (Ipoh, Perak)

Quest International University is located at No. 227, Plaza Teh Teng Seng (Level 2), Jalan Raja Permaisuri Bainun, 30250 Ipoh, in the state of Perak. The campus occupies a central position in Ipoh, the capital of Perak, within walking distance of major commercial, residential, and transport infrastructure. Ipoh sits roughly 200 km north of Kuala Lumpur along the North-South Expressway and approximately 160 km south of Georgetown, Penang, placing the city at the midpoint of the northern Peninsular Malaysia corridor.

The campus is a vertical urban facility rather than a sprawling rural land grant. Plaza Teh Teng Seng provides the academic floors, lecture theatres, faculty offices, library facilities, and student services, with hostels and additional facilities arranged across QIU’s broader Ipoh footprint. This vertical urban model is closer to the campus pattern of Klang Valley private universities such as INTI International University and Sunway than to the 230-acre rural campus of AIMST University in Bedong, Kedah.

The Ipoh location is operationally central to QIU’s value proposition. Ipoh is the third-largest urban area in Peninsular Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown and serves as the commercial, administrative, and healthcare hub for Perak. For QIU’s medical and pharmacy students, Ipoh hosts Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun (the state’s principal tertiary public hospital), Hospital Pakar Sultanah Fatimah, and a network of private hospitals that provide clinical posting and observation venues. For business and engineering students, the Kinta Valley industrial belt and the broader Perak economic corridor provide internship and graduate placement opportunities.

Connectivity to Ipoh is robust. The North-South Expressway connects Ipoh directly to Kuala Lumpur (roughly 2 hours by car) and Penang (roughly 1.5 hours). Sultan Azlan Shah Airport in Ipoh handles domestic flights, with Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Penang International Airport accessible within 2 to 2.5 hours by road. Ipoh railway station sits on the KTM ETS line, providing direct intercity rail connections to Kuala Lumpur, Padang Besar, and intermediate stations.

Quest International University Programmes

QIU organises its academic offerings across 6 faculties, with each faculty running its own undergraduate, postgraduate, and (where applicable) foundation pathways. The university operates 32 undergraduate programmes overall, alongside foundation, diploma, and postgraduate qualifications.

The Faculty of Medicine runs the five-year MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) programme. The MBBS curriculum follows the standard Malaysian pre-clinical and clinical structure, with clinical postings at affiliated hospitals in the Ipoh region.

The Faculty of Pharmacy delivers the four-year Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons), with curriculum and clinical placements oriented toward registration with the Pharmacy Board Malaysia upon completion of the required pre-registration training.

The Faculty of Business runs Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Accountancy, Bachelor of Actuarial Science, Bachelor of Finance, and Bachelor of Hospitality Management programmes alongside the MBA and the Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration. The PhD in Business Administration carries MQA reference MQA/FA8205, accredited on 9 February 2024.

The Faculty of Education and Social Sciences offers Bachelor of Education programmes including Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), Early Childhood Education, and Special Needs Education, alongside Bachelor of Psychology, Bachelor of Mass Communication, and Bachelor of Corporate Communications.

The Faculty of Integrated Life Sciences runs Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences, Bachelor of Biotechnology, Bachelor of Food Science, and Bachelor of Environmental Technology programmes, with a research orientation toward applied life sciences problems relevant to Perak’s agricultural and food processing economy.

The Faculty of Engineering and Computing offers the Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering, Bachelor of Computer Science, and Bachelor of Information Technology programmes. The faculty diversifies QIU’s portfolio beyond the medical and life sciences disciplines and provides STEM pathways for students who do not enter the MBBS or pharmacy intake.

At foundation level, QIU runs Foundation in Science, Foundation in Business, and Foundation in Arts programmes serving as the principal SPM and O-Level entry pathways into the degree programmes. Diploma offerings span business, IT, and culinary arts, with the Diploma in Culinary Arts a notable specialty offering reflecting the QI Group’s broader hospitality investments.

Postgraduate offerings include the MBA, Master’s degrees across most faculties, and doctoral programmes including the PhD in Business Administration. The teaching philosophy at QIU emphasises experiential learning, including industrial and clinical exposure, soft skills development, technopreneurship training, and student-centred teaching, reflecting the QI Group’s broader entrepreneurship orientation.

QIU Fees and Tuition

QIU publishes programme-level fees that vary substantially by faculty, with the medical and pharmacy programmes at the top of the fee schedule and the foundation programmes at the bottom.

Programme	Annual Fee Range (RM)	Notes
Foundation programmes	from 9,500	Foundation in Science, Business, or Arts
Diploma programmes	varies by programme	Business, IT, Culinary Arts
Bachelor degrees (Business, Education, IT)	mid-range	Contact admissions for current rates
Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons)	upper-mid range	4-year programme
MBBS Medicine	top tier	5-year programme, separate schedule
Hostel and transport	410 to 510 per month	Inclusive bundle
English Enhancement Programme (EEP)	1,000 (one-off)	If required

QIU foundation programmes start from approximately RM 9,500 per year, positioning the foundation pathway as accessible relative to Klang Valley competitors. Hostel and transportation fees run RM 410 to RM 510 per month and bundle accommodation with campus shuttle access. The English Enhancement Programme costs RM 1,000 as a one-off charge for students whose entry English assessment indicates the need for the programme.

Specific degree-level tuition varies by programme and intake year. Programmes in Business, Education, Information Technology, and the social sciences sit in the mid-range tier, while Pharmacy and Engineering programmes sit in the upper-mid range. The MBBS at the Faculty of Medicine sits at the top of the fee schedule, in line with the resource intensity of medical education across all Malaysian private medical schools, with separate fee schedules quoted directly by the admissions office.

QIU operates a substantial scholarship programme that materially reduces effective tuition cost for qualifying students. SPM leavers entering foundation programmes can qualify for scholarships of up to 100% of tuition based on academic merit, with sliding-scale partial scholarships for students below the top tier. Degree programme scholarships are available across faculties including Medicine and Pharmacy, with selection based on entry qualifications and ongoing academic performance. Federal funding pathways such as PTPTN are accepted for eligible programmes.

All published fees are quoted for Malaysian students. International student fees run on separate schedules and should be requested from the admissions office. Sources for the fee data above include the QIU undergraduate fee schedule published at postupionline.com/sites/default/files/files/quest-tuition-fees.pdf and the QIU programmes pages at qiu.edu.my.

Quest International University Accreditation and MQA Recognition

Quest International University holds full university status under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 (Act 555) and is registered with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) as institution 577 on the Malaysian Qualifications Register. Every programme offered at QIU is approved and accredited by the MQA. The university’s full programme accreditation records are published on the QIU website at qiu.edu.my/qiu-programmes-accreditation-records and on the MQR public register at www2.mqa.gov.my/MQR.

The transition from university college to full university status in 2011 was a substantive regulatory milestone. Under Malaysian higher education law, the full university designation requires the institution to maintain a minimum range of degree programmes across multiple disciplines, postgraduate research capacity including doctoral degrees, faculty qualifications meeting MQA staffing standards, and the institutional governance and quality assurance frameworks required by the Code of Practice for Programme Accreditation (COPPA) and the Code of Practice for Institutional Audit (COPIA).

Programme-specific accreditations include the Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration at MQA reference MQA/FA8205, accredited on 9 February 2024, and individual programme codes for each undergraduate, postgraduate, and foundation programme. The MBBS programme at the Faculty of Medicine is recognised under the standard Malaysian Medical Council framework for MMC-recognised MBBS providers, with periodic regulatory review on student-to-teacher ratios and clinical posting capacity. The Bachelor of Pharmacy is recognised by the Pharmacy Board Malaysia for graduate provisional registration purposes upon completion of pre-registration training.

QIU is a member of the International Association of Universities (IAU) and is listed in the IAU World Higher Education Database (WHED) and on the IAU-HESD Higher Education for Sustainable Development register. These memberships are not regulatory accreditations in the Malaysian sense but provide international visibility and inter-university cooperation pathways.

QIU Admissions

QIU operates rolling admissions across most programmes, with separate intake calendars for the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Pharmacy, which carry stricter regulatory entry requirements set by the Malaysian Medical Council and Pharmacy Board Malaysia respectively.

Entry to the MBBS programme at the Faculty of Medicine requires either STPM with strong passes in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics or Mathematics; A-Level passes in the same science subjects; an accredited Foundation in Science completion at the required CGPA; or an equivalent qualification accepted by the Malaysian Medical Council.

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

Entry to Faculty of Business, Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, and Faculty of Engineering and Computing degree programmes requires STPM, A-Level, the relevant accredited foundation completion, or an equivalent pre-university qualification with the subject prerequisites for the chosen programme.

Foundation programmes accept SPM, O-Level, or equivalent qualifications with the relevant subject passes for the chosen pathway (science, business, or arts).

Diploma programmes accept SPM with the required minimum credit count.

Postgraduate admissions run year-round. Master’s and doctoral applicants should hold a relevant bachelor’s or master’s qualification, identify a supervisor with research alignment for research-mode programmes, and submit a research proposal where required.

QIU intakes typically align with the Malaysian academic year (January and either July or September starts), with the medicine and pharmacy intakes running on more constrained calendars due to clinical posting scheduling. International applicants should factor in additional lead time for the EMGS student visa pass, which runs on its own processing window administered separately from QIU’s internal admissions decision. The university website at qiu.edu.my hosts the application portal and current intake schedules.

QIU’s Perak / Northern Malaysia Specialty

Quest International University is the only private full university headquartered in Ipoh, the capital of Perak. Within the private universities sector in Perak state, no other institution combines QIU’s central Ipoh location, comprehensive 6-faculty coverage, and state-equity ownership structure. UTP in Tronoh is a specialist engineering and technology university; the other private institutions in Perak operate at college or university college scale rather than full university scale.

This positioning matters for two distinct constituencies. For Perak school leavers, QIU provides a local pathway into private tertiary education without the relocation cost and family disruption of moving to the Klang Valley, Penang, or Johor. The cost saving of staying in Ipoh, where rental, food, and transport are materially cheaper than in Petaling Jaya or Subang Jaya, can compound the scholarship savings and bring the effective four-year cost of a QIU degree well below an equivalent degree at a Klang Valley competitor.

For Perak’s economic development planners, QIU anchors a tertiary education ecosystem that retains Perak students within the state and attracts students from Kedah, Penang, Selangor, and Pahang into Ipoh. The state government’s equity participation reflects this policy logic: Perak has watched its school-leaver population disperse to Klang Valley universities for decades, and QIU is the structural counterweight to that outflow at the comprehensive-university tier. UTP serves the same logic at the technical-engineering tier.

QIU’s faculty mix is also tailored to Perak’s economic structure. The Faculty of Integrated Life Sciences runs food science and environmental technology programmes that connect to Perak’s agricultural, fisheries, and food processing industries. The Faculty of Business runs hospitality management and accountancy programmes that connect to the Ipoh service economy and the wider Kinta Valley commercial sector. The Faculty of Education’s TESL and Early Childhood Education programmes connect to the Perak state education system’s teacher recruitment pipeline.

For international students, the Ipoh location offers a lower-cost, lower-density alternative to the Klang Valley while retaining good highway and rail connectivity to Kuala Lumpur and Penang. The QI Group’s international footprint and Dato’ Sri Dr Vijay Eswaran’s network across Asia have historically supported QIU’s international student recruitment in markets including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and parts of West Africa.

How QIU Compares to Other Perak Universities (UTP, AIMST, KDU Penang, INTI Subang)

Prospective students weighing QIU against other northern Malaysia and Klang Valley private universities should hold the comparison against four practical reference institutions: UTP in Perak itself, AIMST in Kedah, the KDU/UOW Malaysia footprint in Penang, and INTI International University in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) sits in Tronoh, Perak, roughly 50 km south of Ipoh. UTP is a specialist engineering and technology university wholly owned by PETRONAS and operates a substantial 1,000-acre campus with on-site accommodation. UTP’s programme range concentrates on chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering, with applied sciences and business programmes built around the engineering core. Where QIU is comprehensive across medicine, pharmacy, business, education, life sciences, and engineering, UTP is depth-first within the engineering and technology tradition. For students seeking petroleum or chemical engineering with PETRONAS sponsorship pathways, UTP is the natural choice within Perak. For students seeking medicine, pharmacy, education, or business, QIU is the Perak choice.

AIMST University sits in Bedong, Kedah, roughly 200 km north of Ipoh. AIMST is a specialist medical-dental university with the only private full MBBS and BDS programmes in northern Malaysia, founded in 2001 by the late Tun S. Samy Vellu under MIC’s MIED foundation. AIMST’s MBBS at RM 63,950 per year (RM 319,750 total) sits at a clear price point. Where QIU’s medical programme is one of six faculties, AIMST’s medical and dental programmes are the institutional centre of gravity. For students in northern Malaysia seeking medicine or dentistry on a 230-acre rural campus, AIMST is the dedicated choice. For students seeking medicine alongside other comprehensive options on an urban Ipoh campus, QIU is the regional alternative.

The KDU/UOW Malaysia footprint in Penang (formerly KDU Penang University College) operates as a campus of UOW Malaysia under the Wollongong group, with comprehensive coverage spanning business, engineering, hospitality, and creative industries. UOW Malaysia Penang sits roughly 160 km north of Ipoh and offers metropolitan Penang exposure with the UOW dual-degree pathway. QIU competes on Ipoh location and the QI Group network rather than on metropolitan Penang exposure or the UOW dual-degree.

INTI International University sits in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, with major campuses in Subang Jaya, Penang, and Sabah. INTI runs a comprehensive programme range with strong British and Australian articulation pathways. The Klang Valley INTI campuses sit roughly 200 km south of Ipoh in Selangor. For students prioritising Klang Valley metropolitan exposure, INTI provides the broader programme range and city-centre access. For students prioritising Ipoh proximity and Perak roots, QIU keeps the student in-state.

The summary comparison: QIU is the comprehensive Ipoh university, UTP is the specialist Perak engineering university, AIMST is the specialist Kedah medical university, UOW Malaysia Penang is the comprehensive Penang option, and INTI Subang is the comprehensive Klang Valley option. QIU’s market positioning relies on Ipoh-centred Perak families and the regional draw from northern Perak and southern Kedah school leavers seeking comprehensive university options without Klang Valley relocation.

QIU Contact and Practical Information

The university’s main switchboard is the toll-free number 1-800-88-7487, with the main office located at No. 227, Plaza Teh Teng Seng (Level 2), Jalan Raja Permaisuri Bainun, 30250 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The university website is qiu.edu.my, with admissions enquiries handled through the website application portal and the dedicated admissions email channel published on the contact page.

For prospective students, the practical entry points are: the qiu.edu.my main site for programme listings and application forms; the qiu.edu.my/qiu-programmes-accreditation-records page for individual programme MQA accreditation references; the QIU undergraduate, foundation, and postgraduate programme pages for fee schedules and intake calendars; and the official QIU social media presence on Facebook at facebook.com/QuestInternationalUniversityOfficial for current event and convocation news.

For international applicants, the EMGS student visa pass is administered by Education Malaysia Global Services and runs on a processing window separate from QIU’s internal admissions decision, typically requiring 4 to 8 weeks of lead time. International student services at QIU coordinate the EMGS submission alongside accommodation booking and orientation scheduling.

In summary: Quest International University (QIU) is the only private full university headquartered in Ipoh, established in 2008 and operating as a full university since 2011 under the joint ownership of the QI Group’s Global Integrated Training Associates Sdn Bhd and the State Government of Perak. The university runs 6 faculties (Medicine, Pharmacy, Business, Education and Social Sciences, Integrated Life Sciences, and Engineering and Computing), 32 undergraduate programmes, foundation programmes from RM 9,500, and full MQA accreditation for all programmes, anchoring comprehensive private tertiary education in Perak’s capital.