Petaling Jaya, 11th August 2009: - Masterskill today announced plans to set up a RM28 million campus in Johor. At a special ceremony this afternoon, the S&P Agreement was signed between Masterskill (M) Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Masterskill Education Group Berhad (MEGB) and Seri Alam Properties Sdn Bhd (SAP), the wholly owned subsidiary of United Malayan Land Bhd and the developer of Bandar Seri Alam, Pasir Gudang, Johor. Under the terms of the Agreement, Masterskill will acquire SAP's current corporate office situated on a plot of land measuring 7.95 acres in Bandar Seri Alam, together with an adjacent piece of land measuring 4.37 acres. This ceremony was witnessed by Yang Teramat Mulia Raja Dato Seri Azureen binti Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah, the Chancellor of Masterskill University College of Health Sciences (MUCH) and the Minister of Higher Education Malaysia, Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, who was joined by Dato Edmund Santhara, Executive Director and CEO of Masterskill Education Group Berhad, and Dato Ng Eng Tee, Deputy Chairman and Executive Director of the UM Land Group.

Masterskill University College of Health Sciences (MUCH) continues to expand across the nation with the setting up of this university college campus the first of its kind in Johor. This will be Masterksills 5th branch campus, making it the nations largest private nursing & health science education provider. The new campus in Bandar Seri Alam within Iskandar Malaysia will eventually cater for an additional 10,000 students by 2011.

Speaking at the ceremony today, Dato Edmund Santhara said Masterskill are indeed privileged to be invited to establish a presence in Bandar Seri Alam. The emergence of Bandar Seri Alam as Iskandar Malaysia Eastern Corridors Education Hub is certainly an exciting prospect both for residents of the areas as well students of the area. He added that Masterskill were honoured to be able to provide quality healthcare education right at the doorstep of students in the southern region.

Dato Ng Eng Tee said Following SAPs decision to relocate its corporate office to Bandar Seri Alams main commercial area, Masterskill was quick to make an offer to purchase this choice property and the neighbouring plot of land for its campus. SAP welcomes Masterskill as another premier educational institution within Bandar Seri Alam (which already has Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM); University Kuala Lumpur and University Teknology Mara developing their respective campuses there). Masterskills presence in Bandar Seri Alam is a further step in making the township into a City of Knowledge where the best academic minds are brought together and moulded for the benefit of the nation.

The new campus will be the first ever Allied Health, Medical and Dental university college in Johor. The location of the Education Hub is ideally suited for Masterskill as it is located close to key training clinics and hospitals. In and around the area, there are 42 clinical placement centres which currently host Masterskill students from all over the country. The new campus will also offer various employment opportunities for trained personnel in the region. Trained clinical instructors who were previously reluctant to travel to other campuses can now be part of Masterskills growing family right here in their home state. Commenting on Masterskills future plans for this branch campus, Dato Edmund said

MEGB foresees great potential in this new campus. For one, we hope that it will be this campus that helps us establish a presence in the Singapore healthcare market. We will look at placing students in clinical or post-graduate training and employment in Singapore and hence establish our profile in the island-nation.

Dato Edmund added we are very grateful for the support levied to us by the Minister and the Ministry of Higher Education. With this continued support, this University College campus will be adding more programs in our degree programs.

Masterskill started operations almost a decade ago with about 70 students in its first intake. The College has since rapidly expanded to now include campuses in Cheras, Ipoh, Kota Bharu and Kota Kinabalu. Its Cheras campus was conferred University College status in 2008 and today boasts a total student population of more than 15,000 students and is recognized as the leading private healthcare education provider not only in the country but also in the Asia Pacific region.