The Sunway Signature Collection

The following is an article by The Edge, featuring Professor Dr Chai Lay Ching, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Education, Employability and Alumni at Sunway University.

For many students around the world, the higher education experience tends to hold many similarities. While the places and the courses may differ, many higher education institutions do tend to subscribe to similar methods and schools of thought.
However, Sunway University aims to redefine this experience with its newly developed Sunway Signature Collection — “an educational journey like no other”, according to pro vice-chancellor Professor Chai Lay Ching.

“We call it student experience reengineering. So the whole focus is on creating programmes and ecosystems that truly support students. Not just to learn knowledge and skills that are required within their programme, but also to acquire values and mindsets such as sustainable development, planetary health and entrepreneurship,” she explains.

Essentially, Chai says, the carefully curated Sunway Signature Collection student experience is the organisation’s answer to the disconnect that currently exists between the academic framework of learning, and the skills and knowledge that is needed by the student to be a productive, contributing member of society.

This transformation is driven by four strategic pillars: namely personalised pathways for every ambition; industry as a classroom; global excellence, local impact; and future-proofing through sustainability and innovation.

According to Chai, the journey starts from day one. “The first day when the students enrol in their study programme, they are guided through a structured process that helps them to envision the future career that they actually want to engage in.

“Rather than entering university not knowing their direction, we equip them with the skills that are actually required in the current day, and this will prepare them to be the future leaders that can shape the industry when they graduate.”

This, she explains, is what Sunway University classifies as a Career Xcellerator Pathway, an even mix of a more classic educational experience, but with a modern slant that helps students go beyond book learning, integrating career-focused and industry-driven content to better prepare students for the real world.

However, Chai points out that career paths are not as clear-cut as they used to be, and that is where the Career FleX Pathway comes in. This allows students to blend multidisciplinary courses, which would allow them to curate their own idea of what a dream job looks like.

“For example, maybe a student wants to be a KOL (key opinion leader) after they graduate. Or maybe I am taking biotech, but I want to be able to communicate about science on a public platform. Can they go into that? The answer is yes, we have designed the pedagogy in a way that it provides them that flexibility, so it empowers them to design their career path,” Chai says.
She points out that Sunway Signature Collection is not just mere programme collecting, that it is all about making it a r icher academic experience for students. Another big aspect of the Sunway Signature Collection is that you don’t have to experience it alone.

“Each of our students, when they first join the university, they will be appointed a success coach. This is part of our Success X-Factor Coaching Model that we actually provide for our students, where these coaches will provide them with guidance in their study and future career preparation. When students face challenges, when they face problems, these coaches are the first people that they can approach for advice.”

This is kicked up a notch in their final year where the students not only get an additional success coach, but that coach will either be a director or leader of the industry of that particular discipline.

“These will all be people from the C-suites, those will be the sort of individuals that Sunway University will engage. As you know, the Sunway Group is a conglomerate, and that means that we have a wide range of resources at our disposal. For example, let’s say a student wants to go into marketing, we can get marketing directors to become coaches.

“What this ultimately does is that it opens up avenues for them to eventually land a job and start their career,” says Chai.
Chai says the carefully curated Sunway Signature Collection student experience is the organisation’s answer to the disconnect that currently exists between the academic framework of learning, and the skills and knowledge that is needed by the student to be a productive, contributing member of society.

Making the world your classroom
In a world where borders are fast dissolving, it only makes sense that in modern education, students are not confined by the physical walls of their classroom. Sunway University is well-known for ensuring that its students are exposed to real-world scenarios so as to prepare them when they go out into the world.

All the programmes integrate industry-driven learning, which translates into incorporating live projects and case studies into the curriculum. This is alongside a series of guest lectures by industry leaders, CEOs and innovators who share their invaluable insights.
It is also why every student will have the opportunity to embark on a hands-on industry experience that spans two to almost four months. This could take the form of traditional industry attachments or internships, freelance industry projects or entrepreneurship.
The interesting thing to note is that, as the private education space gets more competitive, other private universities are also starting to do the same. Chai, however, explains that it goes beyond just putting the courses together; rather, it is about weaving it in so that it feels native in the design of the curriculum.

“So that the students also better understand how their future might look like, or what they need to do more in order to achieve that. It gives them some time to say to themselves that they have three years in university to prepare themselves. The backdrop to this is that Sunway University has put in the pedagogy that will help you excel and thrive.”

She acknowledges that Sunway University, while accomplished, is still a fairly young educational institution compared with its peers. It is also no secret that the university has spent a considerable amount of time building up not just partnerships, but the right partnerships.

“It is a global campus that we are creating over here in Sunway University, but what does it actually mean when we say global experience? That is where we carefully design and select our global education partners.”

One of those partners, Lancaster University, has proven to be valuable for Sunway University’s students, with Chai explaining that it allows for a UK education experience without having to travel halfway around the world, or for those who maybe want to go to the UK after they graduate.

Alongside strategic research partnerships with Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Cambridge University, Sunway University also has a relationship with France’s Le Cordon Bleu. There is also the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre that is established at Cambridge University, which serves as a hub for groundbreaking medical research. There is also Sunway University’s latest partnership stateside, namely with Arizona State University, which she says opens up opportunities for students.

“A lot of people have the American dream. Some may think, can I go to the US to study despite the fact that I don’t have enough funds to be there for four years? Now they can have that American education right here in Malaysia.

So we have created that pipeline, that pathway for students to engage with the rest of the world, by bringing that world to them here right in the campus. This relationship extends to students crossing borders, and having lectures come in. We have global online classrooms where students can learn and engage. That is what we mean by global experience and local actions,” says Chai.

It also doesn’t stop when the students leave. Sunway University also takes pride in its strong alumni network. Chai says this goes beyond just the Sunway Group’s network of businesses, with international partnerships strengthening the pool and expanding the professional network, connecting the dots for students.

“Once a Sunwayian, always a Sunwayian,” she says. “It is a family, a network that you will have access to for the rest of your life.”

How to protect the future

It only takes a quick walk through Sunway University to feel the underlying buzz of activity. Teeming with student life, there is always something going on in every corner, the spaces occupied by study groups, the air humming with the sound of collaboration and, sometimes, music.

Sunway University’s campus has always served as a dynamic home for innovation and collaboration. State-of-the-art facilities abound, including AI-enabled labs, co-learning spaces, and over 100 student-led clubs and associations. Students actively participate in hackathons, interdisciplinary projects and leadership roles. This cultivates what used to be deemed as “soft skills” but now have been recognised more as modern life skills such as creativity, teamwork and real world problem-solving.
Chai says this all plays into the final pillar of the Sunway Signature Collection, namely future-proofing through sustainability and innovation.

“We know that AI is coming, so with all the programmes, none of that is factored in. Now we actually design our pedagogy to allow us to integrate the most current emerging technologies into our curriculum. So students learn about AI, sustainable development and planetary health.”

Sunway University bakes this sustainability and ethical leadership pathos right into its core curriculum. Each student will need to complete the modules of Community Service for Planetary Health, Integrity and Sustainable Development, and Entrepreneurial Mindsets and Skills.

“You need to understand, in the entrepreneurial course, for example, it is not about learning how to be a dictionary definition of what an entrepreneur is. It is about learning the skills and mindset in order to be able to identify a problem, take risks and design a solution.

It is the same when it comes to planetary health. Our students actually engage with a community — they help out with the urban poor community that is actually located just 2km away. They go to Desa Mentari to help the community. Again, this teaches them to identify problems related to planetary health, whether it be climate change or crowd control, and, likewise, they come up with solutions.”

Chai says the lessons learnt — empathy and humility — are as valuable as they are non-tangible, underscored by the quiet satisfaction that they actually helped improve the world around them.

“Students can then see that they don’t need to wait for money to come in order to solve a problem. They can see that everything starts from them, and they have been equipped with these skills,” she says.

Lastly, there is the course on integrity and sustainable  development. Chai says sustainability as a concept can take many forms.

“Sustainability is not just about ensuring that the company, or the project, can get off the ground. Finding funding is just one part of it. But it is also important to be able to handle the stress, the burden that comes with integrity. It is a heavy load to carry on your shoulders. So what Sunway University’s course teaches is how to be able to carry yourself with integrity and in a responsible manner.

“All this makes our students stand out so that when they graduate, they are not just a normal part of the workforce. They are actually the future leaders who will be the ones shaping that industry for the world to see,” she says.

The rest, as they say, is history. Sunway University has seen an enviable rise in the employability of its graduates, from 95% in 2023 to 99.8% in 2024. Many of the alumni have made their mark and risen to leadership roles in top industries. It is no wonder that Sunway University has been named as the top private university in Asean in the AppliedHE Private University Ranking: Asean 2025.
At the end of the day, Chai says while the path trajectory may change and take sudden hairpin turns, the outcome is almost always the same.

“You come here to Sunway University to explore your life, to explore who you really are, and get to know and improve yourself, and are ultimately given the freedom to design your career path. When you eventually do leave Sunway University, you ultimately leave as a leader.”