F1 Demigod Newey Opens Soton’s Malaysia Campus

Amid preparations for this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, the University’s much-vaunted engineering campus in Malaysia formally opened today with support from Red Bull Racing technical director Adrian Newey.

Adrian’s hairstyle is expertly designed to optimise airflow.

Newey, a Southampton aero/astro alumnus, is the single most successful designer in the sport’s history. Since 1992, he has designed nine championship-winning cars—not least the Red Bulls of current boredom-monger Sebastian Vettel—and the modern era of the sport is largely the story of his rivalry with Benetton and Ferrari counterpart Rory Byrne.

Newey praised the University for the quality of its engineering department:

It is my great pleasure to support the University of Southampton for the formal opening of its Malaysia Campus. My degree from Southampton has certainly assisted me in my career and helped me develop, which I believe will also be true for Southampton’s future graduates in Malaysia and the UK.

Joining him at the opening were Vice-Chancellor Prof Don Nutbeam, as well as largely faceless guests from the Malaysian higher education ministry and the investment firms which bankrolled the project.

“Your breath will smell as if you’ve been French-kissing your dead grandmother.” – TV chef Anthony Bourdain

The day was also celebrated on Highfield, with the Arlott Bar dishing up a special Malaysian lunch. Sadly the legendary Durian fruit, which smells so gut-wrenchingly vile it is banned from most public buildings there, does not appear to have been on the menu.

The Malaysia campus is Southampton’s bid to jump on the bandwagon of recruiting students from the emerging Asian economies. It will share elbow room at the EduCity development with outposts of Newcastle University and Marlborough College, the prestigious independent school.  Southampton offers courses in mechanical and electrical engineering only; civil engineers will have to make do with a Saturday job at nearby Legoland Malaysia, which opened in September.

What the new campus looks like. (Credit: Uni of Southampton).

EduCity is located in Nusajaya, part of an 855-square-mile hi-tech corridor in the southern state of Johor which began development in 2006. Southampton’s involvement was courted by the Malaysian government due to a chronic shortage of engineers in a country that is eager to invest in infrastructure projects. The students will spend the first two years in Malaysia and then come to Southampton for the final two.

Though the students pay 40% less than they would in full international fees here, branch campuses are seen as a good investment for English universities, which are desperate to diversify in the wake of £9,000 home student fees and the ensuing fall in intake.  With two campuses in China and one in Malaysia, Nottingham University is one of the trail-blazers in this field.