Design Village Outlet Mall is located within a 300m walk from the Batu Kawan Campus.

A comfortable study area provided for students within the accommodation.

Rooftop area for students to lounge, study and discuss casually.

For students looking to get away for the weekend, the jetty to Pulau Aman is just 6.5km from the campus.

By UOW Malaysia 

Living in an ideal university town while pursuing your degree is a blessing.

This is where you will be spending several years to prepare yourself for a bright future and so beyond the quality of education, also important is a wholesome quality of life for yourself.

And what better environment for students than to live in resort style residences within walking distance from the campus.

“That might be one of the most pleasant things about students’ life in Batu Kawan,” smiled UOW Malaysia Student Service manager Joey Phuah.

Within a 600m radius of UOW Malaysia’s Batu Kawan campus is a cluster of condominium towers built by some of the most reputable developers in the country.

“We work with registered property agents to locate fully furnished condominium units that are suitable for our students.

“These units can hold three to five students per condo unit with all the fixtures and furnishings they need for a homey lifestyle,” Phuah explained.

Phuah said the students have access to all the condominium facilities, which were designed with modern metropolis lifestyles in mind.

These include swimming pools with infinity edges or aqua gym equipment and jacuzzis.

In one of the condominium complexes, just 400m from UOW Malaysia where many undergraduates are now staying, you will find the longest residential swimming pool in Southeast Asia at about 150m long, which is three times the length of an Olympic size pool.

They each have gymnasiums boasting impressive ranges of equipment, and one condo even provides a “combat room”, which is a spacious area full of kickboxing dummies for residents to let off steam with some explosive action.

All the condominiums boast meticulously manicured gardens and many throw in herb gardens, urban farming corners and tree-shaded trails for relaxing walks.

Other amenities you should not be surprised to find are yoga decks, karaoke rooms, lounges and reading rooms, just to name a few, in these residential towers, which are relatively newly built.

To add more sporting satisfaction for students, Phuah said UOW Malaysia also booked the basketball court at the clubhouse of a nearby gated community every Monday and it has been uplifting to see the students heading there every week to shoot some hoops after class.

Phuah explained that such a plush level of modern urban living was possible because Batu Kawan is the latest township of Penang, built with the latest principles of urban planning.

“Up until 2010, Batu Kawan town’s population was just about 5,500, and the area was mainly oil palm plantations and mangrove swamps.

“With the second Penang bridge, which was opened in 2014, the state government and developers began development planning.

“You will find the road system in Batu Kawan to be dominated by wide boulevards and avenues designed to handle large traffic volumes smoothly.

“And you will find the residential and retailing elements to be integrated so that students need only walk a few hundred metres to get to almost any shop they need,” Phuah said.

Less than 300m’s walk from the UOW Malaysia campus here is Design Village Outlet Mall, a low-rise shopping complex with 150 outlets housing a variety of international and local brands in fashion, beauty, sports, home, restaurants and lifestyle cafes.

Ikea Batu Kawan is under 1km away, giving students a taste of Swedish retailing with a supermarket and various other retailing outlets to boot.

For students looking to get away for the weekend, the jetty to Pulau Aman is just 6.5km from the campus.

Pulau Aman is an islet about 2km from mainland Penang with an idyllic fishing village.

You can get a two-minute boat ride there for just a few ringgit at the mainland jetty and enjoy a kampung-style feast of fresh seafood.

Students can even check into seaside homestays overnight and experience a spot of night fishing.

The self-contained, safe and modern living comforts of Batu Kawan as a university town has become known to international students.

UOW Malaysia’s Head of Operations (Batu Kawan) Associate Professor Dr Yeap Gik Hong said about a quarter of the campus’ student population are foreign students, mainly from China.

“It is an ideal township for students, safe and full of amenities to cater to every need,” he added.

To experience Batu Kawan and check out the courses available at UOW Malaysia, call the campus at 04-563 6000 to make an appointment with education advisers there and visit the place.