Universiti Malaya-Wales (UM-Wales)

About Universiti Malaya-Wales (UM-Wales)

Universiti Malaya-Wales (UM-Wales) is a private university located in central Kuala Lumpur, established in 2012-2013 as a joint venture between Universiti Malaya, Malaysia’s oldest and most senior public university, and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) in the United Kingdom. The institution opened under the brand name International University of Malaya-Wales (IUMW) and operated under that name from its founding until 7 March 2024, when it formally rebranded to Universiti Malaya-Wales. The shorter name aligns the institution more closely with its parent shareholder, Universiti Malaya, and with the contemporary brand convention of dropping the “International” prefix once the institution had consolidated its dual-award model.

UM-Wales is registered under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and operates from the City Campus on Jalan Tun Ismail, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, in the Bukit Damansara precinct of the central business district. The university’s institutional positioning is unusual among Malaysian private universities: it is co-owned by a Malaysian public university (Universiti Malaya) and a UK university (UWTSD), giving it a hybrid public-private genealogy that few other private institutions in the country share. The dual-award degree mechanism, where graduates from most undergraduate programmes receive parallel certificates from UM-Wales and UWTSD, is the institution’s principal market differentiator and the rationale for its founding.

UM-Wales runs four academic schools: the UM-Wales Business School (IBS), the Faculty of Computing and Engineering, the Faculty of Education and Liberal Arts, and the School of Hospitality and Creative Arts. Programme coverage spans business and accounting, computer science and cybersecurity, design and filmmaking, hospitality and gastronomy, education, law, architecture, and engineering. The Centre of Foundation, Language and Malaysian Studies (CFLMS) operates the Foundation in Arts and Foundation in Science pre-university intakes that feed the undergraduate cohorts.

The institutional positioning is distinct from the established Klang Valley private universities such as Taylor’s University, Sunway University, and HELP University. Where those institutions compete primarily on brand and on programme breadth, UM-Wales competes on the joint-venture proposition: a UK degree certificate at materially lower cost than the UK branch campuses such as University of Nottingham Malaysia or Heriot-Watt University Malaysia, combined with the credibility anchor of Universiti Malaya as the Malaysian shareholder.

UM-Wales Location and Campus (Bukit Damansara KL)

The UM-Wales City Campus is located at Jalan Tun Ismail, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, on the western edge of the central KL business district. The full address listed on the institution’s contact page is Ground Floor, City Campus, Administration Wing, Jalan Tun Ismail, with the main switchboard at +603 2617 3131 and a WhatsApp admissions line at +6011 3663 3644. The campus sits within the Bukit Damansara area, a long-established central KL residential and commercial precinct framed by the Damansara LRT line, the KL Bird Park and Perdana Botanical Gardens to the south, and the Bangsar and Mont Kiara residential corridors to the north and west.

The campus is a vertical city-campus building rather than a sprawling out-of-town site, in line with the metropolitan footprint of comparable downtown private universities such as HELP University (Damansara Heights) and UCSI University (Cheras). The vertical layout concentrates lecture halls, design studios, computing laboratories, the library, student services, and administrative offices within a single multi-storey complex. Off-campus housing is supplied by the Bangsar, Mont Kiara, Damansara, and Hartamas residential precincts, all within a 10 to 20 minute drive of the campus, with student rentals running through the standard KL private rental market.

The Jalan Tun Ismail location places UM-Wales students within walking or short transit distance of the KL Sentral transport hub, the KLCC business district, the Bukit Bintang shopping belt, and the Lake Gardens cultural quarter. For international students, the central KL location is materially more convenient than out-of-town private university campuses such as those at Bandar Sunway or Cyberjaya, where students are dependent on shuttle services or on private vehicles for off-campus mobility.

The Bukit Damansara precinct itself has been a residential and diplomatic enclave of central KL since the 1960s, hosting embassies, established residential streets, and the Damansara Heights commercial cluster. Students benefit from the established food, transit, and services infrastructure of the area without the fee load that an in-town location would normally imply at a comparable Klang Valley private university.

UM-Wales Programmes (business, IT, education with dual-award)

UM-Wales organises its undergraduate offerings across four schools, with each school carrying programmes that are predominantly structured as dual-award degrees with UWTSD.

The UM-Wales Business School (IBS) runs the bulk of the institution’s commerce and management offerings. Programmes include Business Management, Accounting, International Finance, Marketing, and the Master of Business Administration (MBA) at postgraduate level. The IBS dual-award degrees are the largest single intake stream at UM-Wales and the principal pipeline for the Universiti Malaya-Wales Business School graduate cohort.

The Faculty of Computing and Engineering runs Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons), Bachelor of Software Engineering, Cybersecurity programmes, Data Systems, Games Development, Architecture, Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Energy and Environmental Engineering. The computing programmes carry the dual-award structure with UWTSD and feed both into the Malaysian tech sector and into UK postgraduate progression for students who choose to extend their UWTSD relationship into a Master’s qualification.

The Faculty of Education and Liberal Arts runs Early Years Education and Care, Professional Policing, the Bachelor of Laws (LLB), and a portfolio of education-track programmes. The Early Years Education and Care programme draws particular interest from students targeting the Malaysian early childhood and kindergarten teaching workforce, with the dual-award UWTSD certificate carrying additional recognition value for international school employers in Malaysia.

The School of Hospitality and Creative Arts runs Hospitality and Hotel Management, International Gastronomy Management, Travel and Tourism, Graphic Design, and Filmmaking and Film & TV. The gastronomy and hotel management programmes draw on UWTSD’s UK industry partnerships and on the established hospitality industry presence in central KL for placement and internship opportunities.

The Centre of Foundation, Language and Malaysian Studies (CFLMS) delivers the Foundation in Arts and the Foundation in Science pre-university programmes. These are the principal entry points for SPM and O-Level holders progressing into the UM-Wales degree intakes, with curriculum mapping to the four academic schools.

At postgraduate level, UM-Wales runs Master’s and Doctoral programmes across the four faculties, with rolling supervisor assignment for the research-track qualifications and structured intake calendars for the taught Master’s offerings such as the MBA.

The dual-award structure is the unifying thread across most undergraduate programmes. A student enrolled in a UM-Wales dual-award Bachelor of Business Management, for example, completes the curriculum mapped jointly between the UM-Wales academic council and the UWTSD academic council, sits assessments validated by both institutions, and graduates with two parallel degree certificates: one issued by UM-Wales (the Malaysian qualification, MQA-accredited) and one issued by UWTSD (the UK qualification, accredited by the QAA). The student also has the option to complete one semester of the curriculum at the UWTSD campus in Wales.

UM-Wales Fees and Tuition

UM-Wales publishes a programme-level fee schedule on its admissions page at umwales.edu.my/admissions/fees. The schedule is updated periodically and quoted in Malaysian ringgit for Malaysian students, with a separate fee column for international students. The 2025 published Foundation fees are set out below.

Programme	Local Student (RM)	International Student (RM)
Foundation in Arts (per programme)	13,410	19,451
Foundation in Science (per programme)	14,800	19,800
Master’s Resource Fee (per semester)	600	600
Doctoral Resource Fee (per semester)	800	800
Doctoral Research Fee (per semester)	600	600

Undergraduate degree programme fees vary by faculty, programme length, and the dual-award structure, and the precise figures are listed against each programme in the live UM-Wales fees schedule rather than reproduced here. Prospective students should consult the current schedule at umwales.edu.my/admissions/fees before relying on quoted figures.

From 1 October 2025, all UM-Wales programme-related fees became subject to 6% Sales and Service Tax (SST) for international students, in line with the Malaysian tax regulation update affecting private higher education tuition for non-citizens. Local Malaysian students are not subject to the SST charge.

The UM-Wales fee positioning sits between the lower-cost private universities such as Open University Malaysia and UNITAR International University and the higher-cost UK branch campuses such as University of Nottingham Malaysia and Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. The dual-award value proposition is precisely the gap between those two price bands: students pay materially less than the UK branch campus rate while still receiving a UK university-issued degree certificate at graduation.

Postgraduate fees at UM-Wales are charged on a per-semester resource fee basis (RM 600 for Master’s, RM 800 for Doctorate) plus a per-semester research fee (RM 600 for Doctorate). The per-programme tuition for postgraduate qualifications is quoted separately by the admissions office and varies by intake calendar and supervisor allocation.

UM-Wales accepts the standard Malaysian funding pathways for eligible programmes, including PTPTN study loans, JPA scholarships where applicable, and corporate or institutional sponsorships. Specific scholarship eligibility for the dual-award programmes is determined on a programme-by-programme basis and should be confirmed with the admissions office during the application process.

UM-Wales Accreditation and Dual-Award Recognition

UM-Wales is registered with the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and is listed on the Malaysian Qualifications Register (MQR) operated by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). The institutional MQR profile sits at mqa.gov.my under the IDAkrIPTS=685 institution identifier (the registration carrying over from the IUMW name through the March 2024 rebrand). Each undergraduate and postgraduate programme on offer carries an individual MQA accreditation code, which is the prerequisite for graduate eligibility for public-sector employment, professional registration, and postgraduate progression in Malaysia.

The dual-award structure rests on a parallel UK accreditation through the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. UWTSD is recognised by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in the United Kingdom, which is the UK regulatory authority for higher education quality. UM-Wales dual-award degree certificates issued by UWTSD carry the same UK qualification status as a degree completed at the UWTSD home campus in Wales, subject to the dual-award curriculum being validated jointly by the two institutions.

UM-Wales is also recognised by the United Kingdom’s Higher Education Academy (HEA) and was reported as one of the first universities in Southeast Asia to receive HEA institutional recognition. HEA recognition relates to teaching quality and academic staff development frameworks rather than to programme-level accreditation, and it operates as a complementary credential alongside the MQA and QAA pathways.

The practical recognition value of the dual-award certificate runs in two directions. For Malaysian graduates, the UWTSD certificate provides a UK qualification credential that opens UK postgraduate progression, UK and Commonwealth employment markets, and international school employment in Malaysia where UK qualifications carry premium weight. For international students enrolled at UM-Wales, the MQA-accredited UM-Wales certificate provides a Malaysian qualification recognised throughout the ASEAN region and across the Malaysian government and corporate sector, complementing the UK-recognised UWTSD certificate.

The dual recognition is also the basis for the UM-Wales semester-abroad option. Students enrolled in dual-award programmes can elect to complete one semester at the UWTSD campus in the UK, with the credits earned mapped back to the UM-Wales home programme. The mobility pathway is administered through the UM-Wales Student Mobility office and is structured to fit within the standard four-year degree timeline rather than to extend it.

UM-Wales Admissions

UM-Wales operates rolling admissions across most programmes, with structured intake months for the foundation and undergraduate cohorts. Foundation programme intakes typically run in January, May, and September, and undergraduate degree intakes align broadly with the same calendar.

Entry requirements vary by programme and faculty.

The Foundation in Arts and Foundation in Science accept SPM holders with the relevant subject pass grades, O-Level or IGCSE holders with equivalent grades, and equivalent international pre-SPM qualifications. The Foundation in Science requires science-stream passes (Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Mathematics) and the Foundation in Arts accepts a broader subject combination.

The undergraduate degree programmes at UM-Wales accept STPM, A-Level, UEC, completed Foundation programmes (UM-Wales Foundation or equivalent from another MQA-recognised institution), Diploma qualifications, or equivalent international pre-university qualifications. Programme-specific subject grade requirements are listed on each programme’s UM-Wales admissions page. Programmes in computing, engineering, and the science-track degrees also require relevant maths and science grades at the pre-university level.

The postgraduate Master’s and Doctoral programmes require a relevant bachelor’s or master’s qualification as appropriate, English language proficiency for non-native speakers (typically IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL equivalent), and for research-track qualifications, supervisor alignment with a research proposal.

International applicants also require an Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) student visa pass, processed separately from the UM-Wales internal admissions decision. EMGS approval typically runs on a six- to twelve-week processing window and is required before the student can enrol on campus.

Applications can be submitted directly via the admissions portal at umwales.edu.my/admissions, through the EMGS portal for international students, or via accredited education agents in target source markets. The UM-Wales admissions team can be reached at +603 2617 3131 (switchboard), +6011 3663 3644 (WhatsApp), and at the City Campus address on Jalan Tun Ismail, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.

The UM and University of Wales Joint Venture Explained

The UM-Wales joint venture is structured as a co-owned private university registered in Malaysia, with Universiti Malaya (UM) and the University of Wales (subsequently the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UWTSD) as the two institutional shareholders. The corporate vehicle is registered under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 and operates under the regulatory oversight of the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and the MQA.

The Universiti Malaya shareholding is the institutional anchor for the Malaysian side of the joint venture. UM was founded in 1949 as the merger of King Edward VII College of Medicine (Singapore) and Raffles College, and it was reconstituted in Kuala Lumpur in 1962 as the country’s first national university. UM is consistently the highest-ranked Malaysian university in international league tables and holds the most senior public-university status in the country. Its participation in the UM-Wales joint venture brings institutional credibility, academic council representation, and curriculum input into the dual-award programme mapping.

The University of Wales Trinity Saint David shareholding operates the UK side of the joint venture. UWTSD is the longest-established degree-awarding institution in Wales, with academic roots going back to 1822 (St David’s College, Lampeter) and 1848 (Trinity College, Carmarthen), and it carries Royal Charter status. The UWTSD shareholding brings the UK-validated curriculum framework, the QAA accreditation umbrella, the dual-award certificate issuance mechanism, and the semester-abroad mobility pathway into the joint venture.

The dual-award programme architecture is the operational expression of the shareholding structure. Each undergraduate dual-award programme at UM-Wales has a curriculum that has been jointly mapped and validated by the academic councils of both UM-Wales and UWTSD. Course materials, assessment standards, examination questions, and grading rubrics are aligned across the two institutions for the dual-award components, with periodic external examiner review running through the UWTSD UK quality assurance process and the MQA Malaysian quality assurance process in parallel.

The 7 March 2024 rebrand from International University of Malaya-Wales (IUMW) to Universiti Malaya-Wales (UM-Wales) tightened the brand alignment with the UM shareholder. The institution’s MQR registration carried over without interruption, and the underlying joint venture structure, programme accreditations, and dual-award mechanism were unaffected by the name change.

How UM-Wales Compares to Other Joint-Venture / Branch-Campus Universities

UM-Wales sits in a comparatively small institutional category in the Malaysian higher education landscape. Most foreign-affiliated private universities in Malaysia fall into one of two structures: the branch campus, where a UK or Australian parent university operates a wholly-owned overseas campus and awards only the parent university’s degree, and the joint venture, where a Malaysian institution and a foreign institution co-own a separate Malaysian private university that may award degrees from one or both partners.

The branch campus model is operated by Monash University Malaysia (Bandar Sunway, Australian parent), University of Nottingham Malaysia (Semenyih, UK parent), Heriot-Watt University Malaysia (Putrajaya, UK parent), Curtin University Malaysia (Miri, Australian parent), Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (Iskandar Puteri, UK parent), Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak (Kuching, Australian parent), and Xiamen University Malaysia (Sepang, Chinese parent). Students at branch campuses receive the parent university’s degree only, with the qualification carrying the foreign accreditor as the issuing authority.

The joint venture model is operated by UM-Wales (Universiti Malaya + UWTSD), Reading University Malaysia (joint venture with EduCity Iskandar), and a handful of other smaller co-branded institutions. Joint-venture students typically have access to dual-award certificate options where both partners issue parallel degrees, as is the case at UM-Wales.

Within the joint-venture category, UM-Wales is unusual in pairing a Malaysian public university (Universiti Malaya) with a UK partner (UWTSD), rather than a Malaysian private institution with a foreign partner. The public-private hybrid genealogy is the institutional feature that distinguishes UM-Wales from other dual-award arrangements in the Malaysian market.

The fee positioning reinforces the categorisation. Branch campuses such as Nottingham Malaysia and Monash Malaysia run undergraduate fees materially above the UM-Wales schedule, reflecting the wholly-owned overseas campus model and the parent-university degree pricing. UM-Wales runs at a lower fee point while still issuing a UK university certificate via the UWTSD dual-award structure, which is the central value proposition for students choosing UM-Wales over a branch campus.

UM-Wales Contact and Practical Information

UM-Wales operates from a single City Campus location in central Kuala Lumpur, with admissions, faculty, and student services consolidated at the same address.

• Address: Ground Floor, City Campus, Administration Wing, Jalan Tun Ismail, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• Switchboard: +603 2617 3131
• WhatsApp Admissions: +6011 3663 3644
• Website: umwales.edu.my
• MQA Register: mqa.gov.my (search Universiti Malaya-Wales or institution code 685)

The campus is accessible by the Damansara LRT line, by KL Sentral connection via the Kelana Jaya line, and by the standard KL road network from the Federal Highway, the SPRINT, and the Maju Expressway. Off-campus housing is supplied by the Bangsar, Mont Kiara, Damansara, Hartamas, and Sri Hartamas residential precincts.

For international applicants, the EMGS student pass processing window runs in parallel with the UM-Wales internal admissions decision and should be initiated as early as possible to align with the intended intake month. The admissions team can advise on the specific document requirements for source-country pre-university qualifications.

Universiti Malaya-Wales (UM-Wales) is a private university located on Jalan Tun Ismail in the Bukit Damansara area of Kuala Lumpur, founded in 2012-2013 as a joint venture between Universiti Malaya and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, formerly branded as International University of Malaya-Wales (IUMW) until the 7 March 2024 rebrand, offering MQA-accredited dual-award undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across business, computing, engineering, design, hospitality, education, and law, with foundation fees from RM 13,410 per programme for Malaysian students.