PENANG, MALAYSIA — 28th JANUARY 2026 — The Minister of Higher Education, YB Dato’ Seri Diraja Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir, today officiated a landmark partnership between Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and ViTrox College, marking the launch of the first-ever public university degree programs hosted entirely within a global technology industrial campus.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) enables ViTrox College to offer two specialised degrees under a franchise model:
This collaboration represents a transformative shift in Malaysian education. While USM serves as the awarding body, ensuring rigorous academic standards, faculty approval, the day-to-day teaching and practical Work-Based Learning (WBL) take place at ViTrox, located within a high-tech ecosystem with a market capitalisation of over RM8 billion.
“By bringing the university into the industry, we solve the two biggest challenges in talent development: specialised facility costs and the academic-industrial skills gap. Our Work-Based Learning (WBL) model uses the factory floor as a living classroom, guided by a unique 3-Mentor Model—comprising Academy, Industry, and Life mentors—that ensures our students are not only technically proficient but also grounded in character,” said Dato’ Chu Jenn Weng, Group CEO of ViTrox. Under this WBL framework, students are immersed in a modern industrial environment, working alongside engineers and scientists to solve real industry problems from day one. With USM’s world-class curriculum and ViTrox’s industrial infrastructure, this will provide students with immediate access to state-of-the-art machine vision, AI, and robotics. This is how we build a sustainable, globally competitive talent pipeline.
During the ceremony, YB Dato’ Seri Diraja Dr Zambry expressed his profound inspiration by the story and commitment of ViTrox founders as a proud USM alumnus. He highlighted that the ViTrox & USM collaboration is the definitive blueprint for modern education—a seamless linkage between academia and industry that accelerates national progress.
Addressing the future, the Minister noted the rapid evolution of Malaysia's youth from "netizens" to "AI-natives," emphasising that the nation’s trajectory relies on unlocking the potential of Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and even Gen Beta. To ensure their success, the Minister pledged his full support to propel ViTrox’s educational initiatives and its unique industry-embedded model to an even greater stage.
The initiative, founded by USM alumni who have now grown ViTrox into a global leader present in 35 countries, is set to produce 1,500 industry-ready professionals over the next seven years. This directly addresses the critical talent shortage in Malaysia’s semiconductor and electronics sectors, aligning with the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS).
“Today, with the support of the Ministry and USM, we are introducing a proven solution: Work-Based Learning through this unique franchise model,” added Dato’ Chu.
