College may be city’s first major casualty of extremely competitive private education sector

KUCHING: With a limited local market and so many new private colleges opening up here, INTI College Sarawak might just be the first major casualty of the city’s extremely competitive private education sector.

The closure of INTI by the end of this year was apparently not all that unexpected for players in the sector and they too would not dismiss the possibility that others could follow.

“I have noticed in the last few years that they are many new colleges opening here. Whether or not they can survive is questionable,” said a former department head of a thriving private college here, who requested anonymity.

“Sarawak has a very limited market and our local students generally prefer to go to Kuala Lumpur to get away from their parents and it is also a big playground there.”

When asked what he thought could have been the cause of INTI’s problems, he said that when the college was at its peak about a decade ago, the majority of its students were from Indonesia.

“During that time there was some unrest in Indonesia and parents wanted to send their children somewhere safe but near enough to monitor them. Kuching was a good location and INTI was a well-established private higher learning institution. That bubble eventually burst. INTI could not replenish their numbers when the Indonesian students graduated and they had to look elsewhere for students. It was then that they opened the floodgates for South African students to come and study here.”

The source said the South African students eventually became a problem for INTI because many of them could not adjust to the local environment and some ran foul of the law.

“It is sad to say this but there is a negative perception attached to the South African students. INTI was eventually seen by local parents as a place for South African students and many did not want to send their children there.”

In a nutshell, he felt that weaknesses in terms of marketing and the negative public image of the college had gotten the better of it.

“Good marketing is crucial for private colleges and universities. Similarly, you have to work on your image to build public confidence in you. In Sarawak, there tends to be an increase in student intake when the economy is in recession but when the economy is good, there is a decline. You know you have positioned yourself well in the market when you still get a decent student enrolment when the economy is good,” he told The Star.