University College of MAIWP International (UCMI)

About University College of MAIWP International (UCMI)

University College of MAIWP International, generally referred to as UCMI, is a private university college in Kuala Lumpur owned by Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan (MAIWP), the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council. The institution achieved University College status on 13 April 2018, having previously operated as Pusrawi International College of Medical Sciences (PICOMS), and traces its institutional origin to a 1993 nursing school established under Pusat Rawatan Islam Sdn Bhd, the operator of Pusrawi Hospital in Kuala Lumpur.

UCMI runs 30 programmes accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA), spanning certificate, diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. The disciplinary focus is concentrated in medical and health sciences (nursing, pharmacy, allied health), with secondary clusters in business and management, and in Islamic education. The institution serves more than 4,000 active students and counts more than 7,500 alumni, the bulk of whom enter the nursing and allied health workforce in Malaysia and across the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and the wider Muslim world.

The institutional positioning is specific. UCMI is not a research university and does not compete with the broad-disciplinary Islamic universities such as the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) or Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). Instead, UCMI is a vocational-and-degree institution that operates within a Shariah-aligned governance framework, drawing on MAIWP’s zakat and waqf resources to subsidise programme delivery and student support, with a strong heritage in nursing inherited from the Pusrawi clinical foundation. The student body is predominantly Bumiputera Muslim, with a meaningful international intake from Indonesia, the Maldives, the Middle East, and parts of Africa.

Governance sits with MAIWP, which appoints the institution’s board of directors and senior leadership. As a state-level Islamic religious council under the Prime Minister’s Department, MAIWP holds responsibility for Islamic affairs in the three Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Labuan, and channels operating surplus from UCMI into scholarship endowments, capital projects, and the broader MAIWP charitable network rather than distributing surplus to shareholders. The institution is therefore non-profit in operating character, in the same sense that the Maju Institute of Educational Development operates AIMST University as a community-foundation venture and the IMU Education Sdn Bhd structure operates IMU University.

The institutional name has changed several times across the institution’s history, reflecting successive expansions of scope. UCMI was upgraded to full university status as Universiti Antarabangsa MAIWP (UniMAIWP) on 31 December 2024, with the public announcement made on 4 April 2025. As of mid-2026, the legacy UCMI brand remains in active use across academic communications, the website domain ucmi.edu.my, and applicant-facing channels during the transitional period to the UniMAIWP identity.

UCMI Location and Campus

UCMI operates two campuses in Kuala Lumpur. The main academic campus is located at No. 3, Jalan 31/10A, Taman Perindustrian IKS, Mukim Batu, Batu Caves, 68100 Kuala Lumpur, where the Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Pharmacy, and Faculty of Health Sciences are based. The administrative and city-presence campus is at Menara MAIWP, No. 55, Lorong Haji Hussein 2, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, which co-locates with MAIWP’s institutional headquarters in central Kuala Lumpur.

The Batu Caves location places the main campus approximately 25 minutes north of the city centre by car, with accessibility via the Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2) and Jalan Tun Razak. Public transport connectivity is provided by the KTM Komuter Batu Caves line, with the Batu Caves terminus station serving the campus. The siting at Taman Perindustrian IKS, an industrial-and-services zone north of the Selangor border, has practical consequences for clinical training: hospital placement sites in the Klang Valley, including Pusrawi Hospital itself in Bandar Tun Razak, are within practical commuting range, and the campus environment is notably less congested than the central business district.

The Menara MAIWP city campus serves as the institutional administrative centre and houses MAIWP’s broader operations, including the zakat administration office for the Federal Territories. The proximity to MAIWP’s headquarters means that institutional decisions involving the parent body, scholarship disbursement, and waqf allocations route through a single physical location, which compresses the governance loop relative to peer institutions whose owners sit at corporate distance.

The campus footprint at Batu Caves is modest by national standards, more comparable to the urban campus model adopted by INTI International University or SEGi University than to the 230-acre garden campuses of AIMST University or Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Practical implications include shorter inter-faculty walking distances, immediate access to the Batu Caves commuter line, but limited space for student residential infrastructure, with most undergraduates sourcing private off-campus accommodation in surrounding neighbourhoods including Selayang, Gombak, and Kepong.

For applicants from outside the Klang Valley, the Batu Caves location is accessible via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) approximately 80 km south, KL Sentral roughly 25 km south as the principal national rail interchange, and the North-South Expressway via the Sungai Buloh and Selayang exits. International students arriving on Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) student passes typically transit through KLIA and onward to the campus by ride-hailing or institutional transfer.

UCMI University College Programmes

UCMI organises its 30 MQA-accredited programmes across three principal disciplinary clusters: medical and health sciences, business and management, and education with Islamic studies. The medical and health sciences cluster carries the bulk of student enrolment and reflects the institution’s nursing-school heritage.

The Faculty of Nursing runs the Diploma in Nursing, a three-year diploma programme that constitutes the institutional flagship in volume terms, and the Bachelor of Nursing Science (BNSc) Honours, a four-year degree programme oriented toward registered nurse qualification with clinical placements at Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Defence designated hospitals. Both programmes are recognised by Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia (the Malaysian Nursing Board), the regulator for nursing practice, with graduates eligible for registration as Registered Nurses upon completion of board examinations.

The Faculty of Pharmacy delivers the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) programme, a four-year degree subject to Pharmacy Board Malaysia minimum entry standards. Graduates are eligible for provisional registration with the Board upon completion of the required pre-registration training period in a Ministry of Health hospital or registered community pharmacy.

The Faculty of Health Sciences runs allied health diploma and degree pathways, with offerings traceable to the institution’s PICOMS-era expansion when the programme catalogue grew from one nursing programme to over 30 across multiple health disciplines. Specific programmes include diplomas and degrees relevant to clinical assistance, healthcare management, and ancillary medical services.

The Faculty of Business and Management offers diploma and degree programmes in business administration, management, accounting-related disciplines, and entrepreneurship. The faculty diversifies UCMI’s portfolio beyond clinical training and provides degree pathways for students whose vocational interest lies outside the health sciences but who wish to study within an Islamic institutional framework.

The Faculty of Education, in conjunction with Islamic studies offerings, runs programmes oriented toward teacher training and Islamic education delivery. This cluster reflects MAIWP’s parent-body mission as a religious authority and provides graduates for the Federal Territory religious schools network and beyond.

At postgraduate level, UCMI runs master’s qualifications and PhD pathways across the medical sciences, management, and Islamic education tracks. Postgraduate intake runs on a rolling basis subject to supervisor availability and research alignment, rather than the fixed semester intakes that govern undergraduate admissions.

The complete programme catalogue, including current MQA codes for each accredited programme, is published at ucmi.edu.my/academic-programmes. Programme-level MQA accreditation can be independently verified via the MQA Registered Programmes portal at www2.mqa.gov.my, which lists the institution under the legacy registration number for Kolej Universiti Antarabangsa MAIWP.

UCMI Fees and Tuition

UCMI publishes indicative fees that reflect the resource intensity of the clinical and health sciences programmes against the lower-cost business and education pathways. Health sciences programmes, particularly the Bachelor of Pharmacy and Bachelor of Nursing Science, sit at the top of the fee schedule due to laboratory infrastructure costs, clinical posting logistics, and regulator-mandated teaching ratios. Diploma and certificate programmes sit at the bottom of the schedule.

Programme	Indicative First-Year Cost (Malaysian Student)
Diploma in Nursing (3 years)	~RM 12,072 tuition + administration
Bachelor of Nursing Science (Hons) (4 years)	~RM 18,000-22,000 per year
Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) (4 years)	~RM 22,000-28,000 per year
Diploma in Business Management (2-3 years)	~RM 8,000-10,000 per year
Bachelor of Business Administration	~RM 12,000-15,000 per year

For international applicants, UCMI publishes a layered first-year cost schedule comprising EMGS fee RM 3,000, administration fee RM 4,000, first-year tuition fee approximately RM 12,072 for the Diploma in Nursing entry point, and an English language course at RM 5,000 where applicants do not meet the minimum English proficiency requirement. The aggregate first-year cost for an international Diploma in Nursing student therefore runs in the region of RM 24,000 inclusive of all institutional charges, before accommodation, food, and personal expenses.

The MAIWP scholarship programme provides a substantial offset against published fees for eligible students. MAIWP scholarships are valued between RM 18,000 and RM 100,000 across the duration of study, structured to cover full tuition fee sponsorship, a monthly living allowance of RM 300 to RM 500, and accommodation provision. Eligibility is generally tied to Muslim Bumiputera status, Federal Territory residency or family income criteria, academic performance at the qualifying level, and programme of study. Priority allocation is weighted toward nursing, pharmacy, and Islamic education programmes that align with MAIWP’s institutional mission.

Federal funding pathways are accepted at UCMI for qualifying programmes, including Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN) student loans, JPA scholarships for federal scholars, and various state-level education foundation grants. The combination of MAIWP scholarship coverage, PTPTN, and family contribution is the typical funding stack for Bumiputera Muslim applicants in the Klang Valley catchment.

All fees should be confirmed with the UCMI admissions office before commitment. Programme-specific fees, particularly for the Bachelor of Pharmacy and Bachelor of Nursing Science where laboratory and clinical posting cost components apply, are quoted on the application response and may differ from the indicative figures above.

UCMI Accreditation and MQA Recognition

UCMI is registered on the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) Register as a Kolej Universiti (university college) and operates 30 programmes that hold MQA accreditation across the certificate, diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral tiers. The MQA registration number for the institution sits under the legacy listing for Kolej Universiti Antarabangsa MAIWP, with the registration record publicly verifiable at www2.mqa.gov.my via the MQA Registered Programmes portal.

The institutional category of Kolej Universiti, or university college in English, sits between Kolej (college) and Universiti (university) in the Malaysian higher education hierarchy. A Kolej Universiti may award degrees up to bachelor’s level autonomously and may run postgraduate qualifications under specified arrangements, but is not the same as a full Universiti, which holds broader autonomy and typically commands a more diverse research portfolio. UCMI’s upgrade to full university status as UniMAIWP was approved on 31 December 2024, with the public announcement on 4 April 2025, marking the institutional progression from university college to full university.

For specific clinical and regulated professions, UCMI’s programme accreditation extends beyond MQA to the relevant professional regulator. The Bachelor of Nursing Science is recognised by Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia (Malaysian Nursing Board) under the Nurses Act 1950, allowing graduates to register as Registered Nurses upon passing the Board’s qualifying examinations and completing required clinical hours. The Bachelor of Pharmacy is reviewed by the Pharmacy Board Malaysia under the Registration of Pharmacists Act 1951, with graduates eligible for provisional registration upon completion of the pre-registration training period.

These professional regulator recognitions carry periodic review obligations. UCMI must continuously satisfy the Boards’ standards on faculty qualifications, clinical posting capacity, equipment provision, student-to-clinical-supervisor ratios, and assessment integrity to maintain registration eligibility for its graduates. Loss of regulator recognition would significantly impair the practical value of the programmes, even if MQA accreditation remained intact.

UCMI does not currently hold a position in the QS Asia rankings or the Times Higher Education Asia rankings, reflecting both the relatively recent achievement of university college status (2018) and the institutional positioning as a vocational-and-degree institution rather than a research university. Prospective students seeking research-intensive Islamic-context education at the same broad subject coverage may compare UCMI against the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), which holds public research university status and commands considerably broader rankings recognition.

UCMI Admissions

UCMI operates rolling admissions across most programmes, with separate intake calendars for the regulated clinical programmes (nursing, pharmacy) that carry stricter Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia and Pharmacy Board Malaysia entry requirements.

Entry to the Diploma in Nursing requires SPM with credits in Bahasa Melayu, English, Mathematics, and one science subject (preferably Biology or General Science), with a minimum credit count specified by Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia. Applicants must also meet a medical fitness standard, including height and visual acuity requirements consistent with the regulator’s nursing practice criteria.

Entry to the Bachelor of Nursing Science (Hons) requires either STPM with passes in Biology and Chemistry, an A-Level pass in the science stream, the UCMI Foundation pathway with the required CGPA, an existing Diploma in Nursing with the required clinical experience, or an equivalent science-stream pre-university qualification accepted by Lembaga Jururawat Malaysia.

Entry to the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) requires STPM, A-Levels, Matrikulasi, or an equivalent science-stream pre-university qualification with strong passes in Chemistry and Biology, alongside Pharmacy Board Malaysia minimum entry standards.

The business and management programmes at diploma and degree level accept SPM, STPM, A-Levels, foundation, and matrikulasi qualifications with the relevant subject mix.

Postgraduate admissions (master’s and PhD) run year-round subject to supervisor availability. Master’s applicants should hold a relevant bachelor’s degree at the required CGPA, and PhD applicants should typically hold a master’s qualification or demonstrate research aptitude through other accepted criteria.

Application contact: UCMI admissions, hotline 1 700 81 7997, office line 03 6192 0600. Online applications run through the eTawaran portal at etawaran.ucmi.edu.my. 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 separate from UCMI’s internal admissions decision and adds the EMGS RM 3,000 fee to the first-year cost stack.

Across all programmes, UCMI runs intake periods that align broadly with the Malaysian academic year, with clinical programme intakes running on the more constrained calendar required by hospital posting scheduling and Board examination cycles.

The MAIWP Connection: UCMI’s Islamic Charitable Foundation Heritage

UCMI’s institutional character is defined by its ownership under MAIWP, the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council, and the Islamic charitable framework that this places around the institution’s operations. Understanding this connection is central to understanding how UCMI differs from peer private university colleges in Malaysia.

MAIWP, formally Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan, is the statutory religious authority for the three Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Labuan. The council was established under the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993 and reports administratively through the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) under the Prime Minister’s Department. MAIWP’s mandate covers the administration of Islamic affairs in the territories, encompassing zakat (almsgiving) collection and distribution, waqf (charitable endowment) management, mosque administration, Shariah court administration, halal certification, and Shariah-aligned education and healthcare provision.

UCMI sits within MAIWP’s education and healthcare verticals, alongside Pusrawi Hospital (the original parent organisation that established the 1993 nursing school) and a network of religious schools across the Federal Territories. The financial relationship between MAIWP and UCMI runs through the waqf framework: institutional surplus, capital, and student support flow as charitable endowment expenditure under Shariah governance, rather than as commercial returns to shareholders. This is structurally distinct from the for-profit private university model that governs much of the Malaysian private higher education sector.

The practical consequences of MAIWP ownership for UCMI students include the availability of substantial scholarship funding (the RM 18,000 to RM 100,000 MAIWP scholarship band described above), the institutional emphasis on Bumiputera Muslim student access, the integration of Islamic studies and Shariah-aligned governance throughout the academic offering, the alignment of the institution’s strategic plan with MAIWP’s broader charitable mission, and the routing of major institutional decisions through the MAIWP board structure rather than through a corporate parent’s commercial decision-making.

The institution’s nursing heritage, traceable to the 1993 founding under Pusrawi Hospital, sits naturally within this Islamic charitable framework. Pusrawi (Pusat Rawatan Islam Sdn Bhd) was established to deliver Shariah-compliant healthcare to the Klang Valley Muslim population, and the nursing school was a workforce-development initiative supporting that hospital. The expansion through PICOMS (2010) into a multi-disciplinary college, then to UCMI (2018) at university college status, and finally to UniMAIWP (announced 2025) at full university status, represents progressive elaboration of the same institutional vision: Shariah-aligned tertiary education delivered through MAIWP’s waqf framework.

Prospective applicants who do not share the Islamic institutional context may still apply to UCMI, with international students from non-Muslim backgrounds enrolled in the nursing and pharmacy programmes, but should expect the institutional culture to be shaped by Islamic norms in dress code expectations, prayer scheduling, halal food provision, and gender-segregated activities consistent with MAIWP’s governance framework.

How UCMI Compares to Other Islamic Universities in Malaysia

UCMI sits in a distinct niche within Malaysia’s broader Islamic higher education landscape, which includes both public and private institutions oriented toward Shariah-aligned education. Understanding the comparative positioning helps applicants weigh UCMI against peer options.

The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in Gombak is a federal public research university founded in 1983 under joint sponsorship of the Malaysian Government and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. IIUM operates 14 kulliyyahs (faculties) across law, economics, engineering, medicine, education, and Islamic studies, with English as the principal medium of instruction, and holds research university status. IIUM is substantially larger than UCMI in student volume (more than 30,000 students), broader in disciplinary coverage, and oriented toward producing graduates for the Malaysian government civil service and the wider Muslim world.

Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, is a federal public university founded in 2000 with a focus on Shariah-and-knowledge integration, particularly in Shariah law, Islamic finance, and Quranic studies. USIM operates 10 faculties, including a Faculty of Medicine, and sits in the public university sector with corresponding fee structures and entry competitiveness.

Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor (KUIS) is a state-level Islamic university college owned by the Selangor State Religious Council (Majlis Agama Islam Selangor, MAIS). KUIS offers Shariah-aligned programmes and operates within the same Islamic-state-council ownership framework as UCMI, with the principal difference being the parent council (Selangor versus Federal Territories) and the disciplinary mix (KUIS leans more toward Shariah and Islamic studies, UCMI leans toward medical and health sciences).

Albukhary International University in Kedah is a private not-for-profit university founded by the Albukhary Foundation, with a charitable mission similar to UCMI’s MAIWP framework but a different parent body (private philanthropic foundation rather than state Islamic religious council) and a different geographic location (Alor Setar rather than Kuala Lumpur).

UCMI’s specific positioning compared to these peers is the combination of:

• Federal Territory Islamic religious council ownership, which provides waqf-funded scholarship resources and institutional endowment alignment that pure private not-for-profit institutions do not match.
• Medical and health sciences disciplinary focus, inherited from the Pusrawi nursing school heritage, which differentiates UCMI from the Shariah-and-business focus of most other Islamic university colleges.
• Klang Valley urban siting at Batu Caves and central Kuala Lumpur, which provides clinical posting access to a range of Klang Valley Ministry of Health hospitals that distance-located peer institutions cannot offer.
• University college status (now transitioning to full university) rather than full research university status, which positions UCMI as a vocational-and-degree institution rather than a research institution.

For prospective students, the decision typically reduces to programme alignment (UCMI’s nursing and pharmacy programmes have strong specific reputation; for broader subject coverage IIUM is the natural option), funding availability (MAIWP scholarship eligibility is a meaningful factor for Bumiputera Muslim applicants from the Federal Territories), and geographic preference (Klang Valley siting is an advantage for students from KL, Selangor, and surrounding areas).

UCMI’s institutional positioning within the broader private universities sector is therefore specific: it is one of two principal Klang Valley Islamic-context private university colleges (alongside KUIS in Selangor), the only one with a significant medical and health sciences portfolio, and the only one owned directly by a state Islamic religious council rather than by a private foundation or corporate parent.

UCMI Contact and Practical Information

UCMI’s main academic campus address is University College MAIWP International, No. 3, Jalan 31/10A, Taman Perindustrian IKS, Mukim Batu, Batu Caves, 68100 Kuala Lumpur. The administrative city campus is at Menara MAIWP, No. 55, Lorong Haji Hussein 2, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, co-located with MAIWP’s institutional headquarters.

For general enquiries, the institutional hotline is 1 700 81 7997 and the office line is 03 6192 0600. Email contact and admissions enquiries route through the institutional website at ucmi.edu.my, with the academic programmes catalogue at ucmi.edu.my/academic-programmes. Online applications run through the eTawaran portal at etawaran.ucmi.edu.my.

The institutional website is maintained at ucmi.edu.my during the legacy UCMI period, and the post-rebranding website for the upgraded Universiti Antarabangsa MAIWP (UniMAIWP) operates at unimaiwp.edu.my. As of mid-2026, both URLs remain in active use during the institutional transition.

For prospective applicants in the Klang Valley, campus visits to the Batu Caves main campus are arranged through the admissions office. The campus is accessible by KTM Komuter to Batu Caves station, by car via the Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2) and the Selayang exit, and by ride-hailing from central Kuala Lumpur in approximately 25 minutes outside peak traffic windows.

Within the private universities sector, UCMI is registered with MAIWP as parent body and listed on the Malaysian Qualifications Agency Register. Independent verification of UCMI’s institutional status and accredited programme list is available at www2.mqa.gov.my via the MQA Registered Programmes portal, and at the Education Malaysia Global Services portal at educationmalaysia.gov.my for international applicant information. The MAIWP institutional website at maiwp.gov.my publishes parent-body governance information and the broader MAIWP charitable network context within which UCMI operates.

UCMI is the only fully MAIWP-owned private university college in Malaysia, located in Kuala Lumpur, founded in 1993 under Pusrawi Hospital and progressively rebranded through Kolej Kejururawatan Pusrawi (2003), PICOMS (2010), Kolej Universiti Antarabangsa PICOMS (2018), Kolej Universiti Antarabangsa MAIWP (2022), and Universiti Antarabangsa MAIWP / UniMAIWP (announced 2025), with 30 MQA-accredited programmes, more than 4,000 active students, and a Diploma in Nursing first-year cost of approximately RM 12,072 in tuition fees.