Bird’s view of Swinburne’s Sarawak campus and it’s surrounding area.

There are many residential estates near Swinburne Sarawak (SUTS) located within 5 to 15 minutes’ drive which offer different types of houses at an affordable rental rate. Rentals vary depending on the type of houses / apartments, location, furnishing, and facilities provided. A common tenancy agreement is on a one-year contract with an initial payment of two-month rental deposit and one-month rental.

We encourage you to do your own online information search.  There are several popular property websites on renting of residential premises, such as iproperty.com.my and propertyguru.com.my.

Utility usage (electricity and water) are usually borne by the tenants although some landlords may include utility charges in the monthly rental. The account usually remains under the landlord’s name although the tenant pays the bills. Charges for electricity and water vary depending on usage.

Monthly bill for utilities may be about RM250 for a household, depending on moderate and mindful usage.

The Malaysian education system is divided into preschool education, primary education (a period of 6 years) and secondary education (typically 5 years which encompasses 3 years of lower secondary and 2 years of upper secondary).

Preschools are widely available in Kuching with a few located near SUTS. Schooling hours for preschool are usually from 8:00am until 11:30am, Mondays to Fridays.

Most of the schools (primary and secondary) near SUTS are public schools which follow the National School Curriculum. However, there are several private schools operating in Kuching which offer either National School Curriculum only or both National and International School Curriculum.

Public primary schools in Kuching are mainly divided into two categories based on the medium of instruction such as follows:

1. Malay-medium National Schools; and
2. Mandarin-medium National-type Schools

Public secondary schools use Malay as the main medium of instruction. However, English is a compulsory subject in all schools.

Childcare services for children below four years of age are provided by registered childcare centres in Kuching. The list is available on the Department of Social Welfare website.

Kuching has a government general hospital and several private specialist hospitals which provide medical consultation and treatment, clinical services (including surgery), clinical support services, and hospitalization. There are also several government and private clinics which provide the general outpatient treatment.

Public transportation such as buses and taxis are available. However, bus services are restricted to certain areas only and schedules vary. Car rental service is also available. Alternatively, e-Hailing services such as Grab Taxi / Grab Car are widely available and convenient.

Mobile Phone
Maxis, Celcom, and DiGi are Malaysia’s major telcos that offer competitive plans for both prepaid and postpaid. It is advisable to study the plans offered by the telco carefully before signing contract.

Broadband connection
You may want to choose TMNet’s Streamyx service and UniFi for wired broadband internet access (ADSL). It is reasonably easy to have it set up at home. More information is available on TM website.

For wireless internet connection, providers available include Maxis, Celcom and Digi. It is advisable to study the plans offered by the telco carefully before signing contract.