Chief Minister of Sarawak Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is also the Pro Chancellor of Swinburne Sarawak, officially declared open the expanded campus of Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus on Saturday, 23 August 2008.
Built at a cost of RM110 million and funded by the Sarawak Government, the university’s expanded campus sees the addition of eight custom-designed buildings on its premises. This brings the total number of buildings on campus to 12.
Construction of the expanded campus began in late 2005 and was completed in July 2008.
The new buildings consist of the Chancellery; Business, IT and Science block; lecture theatre; engineering block; female hostel; male hostel; and a multi-purpose hall.
In addition to already existing modern facilities, they give Swinburne Sarawak world-class, state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories and computer as well as recreational facilities.
The lecture theatre seats 350 while a library accommodates 700 students. The new facilities provide a total of 83 laboratories for engineering, research and science as well 37 tutorial rooms. Two blocks of fully furnished on-campus hostels offer 430 students from out of Kuching all the conveniences of home while the seven-storey car park has bays for about 500 vehicles. Another 200 bays are available around the campus.
The additional facilities allow Swinburne Sarawak to accommodate up to 5,000 students and offer additional courses.
The opening of the expanded campus was marked by the “lighting” of a “flame cauldron” by the Chief Minister and Mr Bill Scales, Chancellor of Swinburne University, on stage the campus’s new 1,000-capacity multi-purpose hall followed by an impressive multimedia presentation on the history and development of Swinburne Sarawak.
The Chief Minister was later invited to a tour of the new facilities and a week-long exhibition on Swinburne’s 100-year history and the establishment of the Sarawak campus, and an exhibition of students’ projects by the university’s four schools. Guests were entertained by a colorful cultural dance as well as a repertoire of songs performed by students.
Also present at the opening ceremony were Malaysian and international dignitaries, including Ms Penny Williams, High Commissioner of Australia to Malaysia. Council members from Swinburne Melbourne were among the guests.
The establishment of the campus in 2000 and the recent expansion of Swinburne Sarawak is testament to the commitment by the Sarawak Government and Swinburne to provide higher education opportunities for Malaysians and those from abroad.
The campus offers undergraduate degrees in engineering, science, business, IT, multimedia and design. Also offered are postgraduate research programs at PhD and Masters levels in these disciplines.
Other courses include one-year foundation programs in business/IT, engineering/science and computing and design, as well as diploma programs in business and information systems, and electronic engineering which articulate into degrees. A range of English language proficiency programs are also available.