UCSI University, Sarawak Campus

About UCSI University Sarawak Campus

UCSI University Sarawak Campus is the East Malaysia branch of UCSI University, sited at The Isthmus in Sejingkat, on the banks of the Sarawak River about 30 minutes by road from central Kuching. The Kuching site shares its land parcel with the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) and the 209-room UCSI Hotel Kuching, an arrangement no other Sarawak private university currently matches. UCSI’s long-stated plan is a 25.5-acre education precinct at Isthmus, of which the present academic block and hotel are the first two phases.

The parent UCSI University, headquartered in Taman Connaught, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, sits at #269 in the QS World University Rankings 2026 and #30 in QS Asia, putting the system in the top 1 percent of universities globally for the fourth consecutive year. Graduates of UCSI Sarawak receive the same UCSI University degree as Cheras counterparts, with academic governance, accreditation and senate oversight running through the central institution. The Cheras programme spread is broader, covering medicine, pharmacy, engineering and music, and is profiled in detail at the UCSI University main campus page.

What distinguishes UCSI Sarawak from the flagship is its deliberate niche. The Kuching campus runs three faculties: Hospitality & Tourism Management, Business & Information Science (also styled the Faculty of Business & Management), and the Centre for Pre-U Studies. There is no medical school in Kuching, no pharmacy faculty, no engineering tower. Instead the campus has been built around Sarawak’s tourism economy, the BCCK convention pipeline and the working hotel next door. Around 500 students are currently enrolled at Sarawak campus, against an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 across the UCSI system as a whole.

UCSI Group was founded in 1986 by Tan Sri Dato’ Peter Ng Boon Beng as the Canadian Institute of Computer Studies (CICS). The group rebranded to Sedaya College in 1990, then Sedaya International College, became University College Sedaya International in 2003, and was upgraded to full university status under its present name in 2008. Chancellor is YAM Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin ibni Tuanku Muhriz; Vice-Chancellor is Professor Datuk Ir. Ts. Dr. Siti Hamisah Binti Tapsir. The Cheras flagship is one of four campus locations, alongside Sarawak (Kuching), Springhill (Bandar Springhill, Negeri Sembilan, opened March 2021 on a 40-acre site) and Bangladesh (Dhaka, opened May 2023). Sarawak is the oldest of the three branch sites and the longest-running UCSI presence outside the Klang Valley.

Sustainability sits at the centre of the university’s institutional identity, with UCSI ranked #334 globally and #57 in Asia in QS Sustainability 2026, plus a separate placing of #18 worldwide for environmental sustainability. The Sarawak campus contributes to that profile through its Green Building Index (GBI) certified hotel, riverfront eco-design and integration with the surrounding biodiversity of the Sarawak River corridor. The campus does not operate as a self-contained Klang Valley clone airdropped into East Malaysia: programme design, employer pipelines, intake calendars and even student housing arrangements are calibrated to Kuching’s tourism economy and Sarawak’s labour market.

UCSI Sarawak Heritage: From KASS Sibu to The Isthmus Kuching

UCSI’s Sarawak presence dates to 1998, when Sedaya International College opened Kolej Antarabangsa Sedaya Sarawak (KASS) in Sibu. KASS was Sedaya’s first venture outside the Klang Valley and was launched at a time when degree-level options in central Sarawak were sparse. The Sibu campus initially ran twinning and pre-university programmes feeding back to the Cheras parent.

When Sedaya was elevated to university college status in 2003 and rebranded as University College Sedaya International, the Sarawak satellite followed suit. By the time UCSI achieved full university status in 2008, KASS had been re-cast as UCSI University Sarawak Campus, with the operational base shifting from Sibu to Kuching.

The current Kuching site at The Isthmus opened as part of a state government and UCSI joint development at Sejingkat. The choice of location was deliberate: the site sits next to the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, Sarawak’s flagship MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) facility, and the riverfront UCSI Hotel Kuching, which opened soon after. This co-location has shaped the campus’s hospitality and tourism specialisation in a way that few other Malaysian campuses can replicate.

The Sarawak campus is the oldest of UCSI’s branch operations, predating Springhill (2021) and Bangladesh (2023) by more than two decades. That heritage matters in a Sarawak hospitality sector that values continuity of institutional presence: many alumni from the Sibu KASS years now sit in senior roles in Sarawakian hotels, resorts and tourism agencies, providing internship and employment pipelines that newer institutions are still building.

The Sibu-to-Kuching shift also reflects broader infrastructure changes in Sarawak through the 2010s. Kuching International Airport upgrades, the build-out of BCCK as a regional MICE hub and the state government’s push to position Sarawak as a tourism economy all favoured a Kuching-based hospitality school over the original inland Sibu site. Sibu remains a viable secondary education catchment, but the working hotels, convention venues, employer head offices and international flight connectivity sit in Kuching. The relocation aligned UCSI Sarawak with the operational geography of the industry it trains for.

Programs at UCSI Sarawak

UCSI Sarawak runs 18 plus MQA-accredited programmes, deliberately concentrated in hospitality, tourism, culinary, business and pre-university. The full active list as of the 2026 intake:

Pre-University and Foundation

• Foundation in Arts (A9780)
• Foundation in Science (A9780)

Diplomas

• Diploma in Culinary Arts (MQA/FA0246, registered 2013)
• Diploma in Hotel Management (A9778)
• Diploma in Leisure Management (MQA/FA0191, registered 2013)
• Diploma in Event Management (MQA/FA15684, registered 2024)
• Diploma in International Business (MQA/FA5300, registered 2019)
• Diploma in Accounting (MQA/FA15583, registered 2025)

Bachelor’s

• BA (Hons) Hospitality Management (A9811), with dual award through HTMi Switzerland
• BA (Hons) Event & Tourism Management (A7867), with dual award through HTMi Switzerland
• BA (Hons) Culinary Management (MQA/FA14359, registered 2024)
• BCom (Hons) Accounting & Finance (MQA/FA13753)
• BCom (Hons) Marketing (MQA/FA13752)
• Bachelor in Business Management (Hons) (A9777)
• Bachelor in International Business (Hons) (MQA/FA13826)

Postgraduate

• Master in International Hospitality Management (MQA/FA12170, registered 2021)
• MBA in Blue Ocean Strategy (MQA/FA1320, registered 2014)

The hospitality and tourism cluster is the centre of gravity. UCSI’s Faculty of Hospitality & Tourism Management ranks Top 40 globally and Top 2 in Malaysia, and the Sarawak hospitality programmes carry the same accreditation. The two dual award bachelor’s degrees with the Hotel and Tourism Management Institute (HTMi) Switzerland are unique in Sarawak: graduates receive both a UCSI University degree and an HTMi Switzerland qualification, picking up Swiss hospitality methodology, an internship at HTMi’s Lucerne or Sorenberg sites, and exposure to European employer networks. No other Sarawak hospitality programme currently offers a Swiss dual award.

The culinary line, anchored by the Diploma in Culinary Arts and the BA (Hons) Culinary Management, runs out of working kitchens with industry-grade equipment. The 2024 launch of the BA (Hons) Culinary Management filled a gap in degree-level culinary offerings in East Malaysia. Event management, leisure management and tourism management round out the cluster, fed by direct work pipelines into BCCK, the UCSI Hotel and Sarawak Tourism Board partner properties.

The business faculty covers accounting, finance, marketing, business management and international business at both diploma and bachelor’s level. Programmes are aligned to professional body recognition where applicable, and the BCom routes follow a structure that supports ACCA, CPA Australia and MIA pathways. The Master in International Hospitality Management and the MBA in Blue Ocean Strategy provide the postgraduate top-up, with the MBA delivered through UCSI’s Graduate Business School.

The Centre for Pre-U Studies houses the two foundation programmes. Both run as one-year intensive pathways feeding directly into UCSI bachelor’s intakes, in Kuching or in Cheras, with internal articulation that avoids the credit-transfer friction common to external foundations.

Fees at UCSI Sarawak

UCSI Sarawak sits in the affordable tier for a top-300 QS Malaysian private university. Total programme fees run from roughly RM 16,000 for the shortest 12-month diploma intakes to RM 44,559 for the most expensive three-year bachelor’s. On an annualised basis the campus is in the RM 14,000 to RM 22,000 per year band, lower than Cheras and well below the Curtin Miri or Swinburne Sarawak engineering programmes.

Programme Category	Total Fee (RM)	Annualised (RM/year)
Foundation in Arts (1 year)	18,012	18,012
Foundation in Science (1 year)	25,810	25,810
Diploma (12-month intake)	from 16,732	16,732
Diploma (24-month)	27,035 - 35,965	13,500 - 18,000
Bachelor’s (3 years)	40,675 - 44,559	13,500 - 14,800

Quoted figures cover tuition only. Resource fees, registration charges, examination charges, accommodation and personal living costs sit on top. Foundation in Science is more expensive than Foundation in Arts because it carries laboratory and equipment loadings.

Three financial aid lines run in parallel. First, every diploma and bachelor’s intake at Sarawak qualifies for a study grant of up to 15 percent off tuition. Second, the UCSI Trust Scholarship pool covers high performers across SPM, STPM, A-Level, IGCSE, UEC and matriculation, with awards up to 100 percent of tuition. UCSI Group has disbursed over RM 250 million in scholarships since the university’s founding. Third, co-curricular and sports scholarships fund students with strong non-academic records.

Federal financing through PTPTN applies to the full programme catalogue. EPF Account II withdrawal is available for accredited Malaysian programmes. International students should budget separately for visa fees, EMGS health screening and accommodation.

UCSI Hotel Kuching as Living Lab for Hospitality Students

The defining feature of UCSI Sarawak is the working hotel next door. UCSI Hotel Kuching is a 209-room riverfront eco-hotel built on the same Isthmus parcel as the academic campus, owned by the same group, and operated as both a commercial property and a training facility for hospitality students. The hotel holds Green Building Index (GBI) certification, runs five ballrooms with combined capacity of 1,500 guests, six meeting rooms, riverfront dining outlets and full F&B operations.

For hospitality, culinary and event students at UCSI Sarawak, this means industry placements happen on the same land parcel as the lecture theatres. The Co-Op Education programme, established by UCSI in 2004 and partnered with over 700 employer organisations, places every student into a minimum two-month per-year industry attachment. At Sarawak, a substantial share of those placements run at UCSI Hotel itself, with rotations through front office, housekeeping, banqueting, F&B and revenue management. Students work live shifts on commercial bookings, not simulated scenarios.

The hotel is also the practical venue for capstone events run by event management students: weddings, corporate dinners, MICE events, conferences and culinary demonstrations that need a real ballroom, a real kitchen and real guests. Students at most other hospitality schools in Malaysia have to seek external placements for this scale of practical exposure. At UCSI Sarawak it sits a short walk from the lecture block.

Beyond UCSI Hotel itself, the campus runs Co-Op partnerships with Marina Bay Sands Singapore, Hard Rock Hotel, Bolton Hotel New Zealand, Four Points by Sheraton and the broader Marriott International network. International placements are routinely available for top performers, particularly through the HTMi Switzerland dual award route. The 100 percent graduate employability figure reported in the MOHE Graduate Survey 2020 reflects this depth of industry pipeline.

The proximity of BCCK adds a second live laboratory. BCCK runs Sarawak’s largest conferences, trade shows and government summits, and UCSI Sarawak event students cycle through volunteer coordinator, registration desk, hospitality runner and back-of-house roles at flagship BCCK events through the year. For students considering tourism management, the Sarawak Tourism Board partnership opens placements at state-run festivals including the Rainforest World Music Festival at Sarawak Cultural Village, the Borneo Jazz Festival in Miri and the Kuching Festival. Few Malaysian campuses offer this breadth of live event exposure within a 30-minute radius.

The cost of running this model is that programme cohorts at UCSI Sarawak are smaller and class scheduling is tighter, because students cycle through industry placements throughout the academic year rather than only in summer breaks. Lectures are clustered to free up half-week blocks for hotel and event work. Students who prefer a more conventional Monday-to-Friday lecture schedule may find Cheras a better fit, but the Sarawak structure is the source of the campus’s industry-readiness premium.

Admissions at UCSI Sarawak

Admissions at UCSI Sarawak follow standard MQA entry requirements layered on UCSI’s institutional norms. Foundation programmes accept SPM with 5 credits including English. Bachelor’s intakes take STPM (CGPA 2.0 plus), A-Level (2 passes), UEC (5 Bs), matriculation, foundation completion or equivalent diploma. Direct intake into Year 2 of the bachelor’s is available to holders of recognised diplomas in cognate fields.

The English requirement is MUET Band 3, IELTS 5.5 or TOEFL iBT 46 for international applicants. Hospitality and tourism programmes also factor in interview performance, particularly for the dual award HTMi Switzerland tracks where the Swiss partner sets joint entry criteria. Culinary intakes accept candidates from broader academic backgrounds but assess practical aptitude during the application interview.

UCSI Sarawak runs three intakes per year, in January, May and September, in line with the wider UCSI academic calendar. Applications open roughly six months ahead of each intake. International student applications go through EMGS, with UCSI’s international office handling visa documentation, airport pickup and orientation. The campus accepts SETARA 5-Star and 6-Star tier referrals from feeder secondary schools across Sarawak; UCSI was rated 5-Star (Very Competitive, Mature University) in the 2019 SETARA cycle, with UCSI’s own awards page citing 6-Star.

Application materials are submitted through ucsiuniversity.edu.my/kuching-campus or via the Sarawak campus admissions office on +6082-596 965 / +6082-596 975. Walk-in counselling is available at the Isthmus campus during weekday office hours. Open day events run periodically and typically include a tour of the academic block and the UCSI Hotel.

Local Sarawakian applicants asking about state financial aid should note that UCSI Sarawak does not currently sit inside the Sarawak Free Tertiary Education Scheme that covers Curtin Miri tuition for eligible Sarawakians. PTPTN, EPF Account II withdrawal and the UCSI Trust Scholarship pool remain the primary financing routes. The 15 percent study grant, however, applies automatically to every successful diploma and degree applicant without separate application, which lowers the effective tuition floor for all students regardless of academic banding.

Articulation between UCSI Sarawak and the Cheras flagship is internal. A student who completes the Foundation in Arts at Sarawak can move to Cheras for a degree intake without an external credit-transfer assessment, and vice versa. Students who switch direction mid-foundation, for example deciding to pursue medicine or engineering after entering on a hospitality track, can transfer to Cheras for the relevant programme through the same internal pathway. This intra-system mobility is one of the operational benefits of the branch-campus model.

UCSI Sarawak in Kuching

UCSI Sarawak’s Kuching location at The Isthmus is closer to the airport and the BCCK end of the metropolitan area than to the historic city centre. The full address is Lot 2976, Block 7, Muara Tebas Land District, Sejingkat, 93450 Kuching, Sarawak. Sejingkat sits on the north bank of the Sarawak River, on a stretch known locally as Isthmus Island.

For students choosing between UCSI Sarawak and other Sarawak private universities, the geography matters. Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus is in central Kuching at Jalan Simpang Tiga, embedded in the city’s main commercial belt with restaurants, malls and student housing densely packed around it. Curtin University Malaysia is 10 hours by road north in Miri, anchored to the Sarawak oil and gas sector. UCSI Sarawak sits between those poles geographically and academically: not city-centre, not oil-and-gas, but a riverfront campus tied to a working hotel and a major convention centre, focused on hospitality and tourism.

Daily logistics for students typically run via Grab or campus shuttle to and from Kuching city, with a journey of around 30 minutes depending on traffic. The campus is roughly 20 minutes from Kuching International Airport (KCH), which carries direct flights to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Miri, Sibu, Bintulu and several regional destinations. On-campus accommodation is available in limited numbers; longer-staying students often take rentals in nearby Petra Jaya or further into Kuching proper.

Kuching itself ranks among Malaysia’s most liveable cities, with low traffic density, well-preserved heritage areas along the Sarawak River waterfront, a strong food culture (kolo mee, Sarawak laksa, midin, manok pansoh) and easy access to national parks including Bako, Kubah and Santubong. For tourism and hospitality students the city is its own teaching aid: Sarawak’s tourism economy, multi-ethnic festival calendar and proximity to indigenous heritage sites give programmatic context that classroom case studies in the Klang Valley cannot replicate.

For deeper context on Sarawak’s broader private university sector, and for comparison with the Cheras flagship at the UCSI University main campus, the cross-linked profiles set out the parallel options. UCSI Sarawak is best suited to applicants whose subject interest sits squarely inside hospitality, tourism, culinary or business at undergraduate or postgraduate level, and who value direct industry exposure on the same parcel of land as their lecture theatres rather than a generalist multi-faculty Klang Valley campus.