Marlborough coming to Johor

October 31st, 2009 admin

Marlborough is coming to Johor Bahru, and we are not talking about Marlboro the cigarette (which has already infested Johor Bahru anyway).

Marlborough College, the prestigious British Boarding school has inked an agreement to setup a boarding School in Nusajaya, part of the Iskandar Malaysia expansion plans. Enrolment is targeted to start in year 2012, when the college will accept students ranging from 5 to 18 years of age. This will offer an obvious choice for expats working in Johor Bahru who are committed to giving their children the best possible education - at a price.

Projected cost of fees will be between RM$35,000 to RM50,000 per annum. At this rate, it is the equivalent cost of the university fee Singaporeans pay for NUS and NTU. There are already plenty of international schools in Singapore just across the causeway (which includes the Singapore American School, Australian International School, Canadian International School, Singapore Japanese School and United World College of South East Asia) but knowing how ugly a trip across the causeway can take, Marlborough College should be confident that it can snag some of the silver-spooned and as a result, make the expansion into Malaysia a lucrative business.

Marlborough College Logo

The agreement with Marlborough College bodes well for Iskandar Malaysia, which is still looking at luring international brands into the region. The hidden agenda is probably to rival Singapore on the economic front but much work still needs to be done. The crime rate needs to be reduced and the transparency index in business needs to improve. Otherwise, bringing all these international brands into the region will be similar to assembling an expensive football team full of individual players with doesn’t gel – and gets the eventual relegation.

Entry Filed under: Iskandar Malaysia