About Us

UCSI University’s Institute of Music (IMus) was established in 1990 and is therefore one of the earliest private providers of tertiary education in Malaysia. We started as Sedaya College, and began with our American twinning program in classical music. Gradually we expanded to include twinning and franchise programs with universities in the UK as well as Australia. In 2003 our institution obtained the university college status and began offering our own Foundation and Bachelor’s degree programs in 2004. In 2008 we were upgraded to a full university status and renamed ourselves UCSI University, the School of Music under the Faculty of Social Science and Liberal Arts. Today, we have approximately 400 students and are among the largest tertiary music schools in Malaysia.

UCSI University currently offers Bachelor’s degrees in Classical Music and in Contemporary Music. Students with SPM (or equivalent e.g. O-Levels) and without STPM (or equivalent e.g. A-Levels) qualification may choose to complete our Foundation in Music program to be eligible for admission into our degree programs. Our bachelor’s degrees are designed to be broad based and have a good balance between performance (and performance-related studies) and academic subjects. Elective subjects in specialized areas (e.g. pedagogy, performance practice, stylistic workshops, counterpoint, etc.) are offered to cater to the varied needs of our student population, depending on their career aspirations. All music programs in UCSI University are fully accredited by the Malaysian Qualification Agency.

The Institute of Music runs on a 2½-semester basis: two regular semesters from January to April and May to August, and one short semester from September to October of each year. Apart from our Annual Concert, all IMus students participate actively and regularly in our weekly Student Recital and ensemble concerts in each semester. We also host guest recitals and masterclasses from visiting artists on a frequent basis.

We enrolled our first batch of Master’s degree students in May 2013.

In March 2014, we became an independent entity and are now known as the Institute of Music. IMus is also an active member of the Southeast Asian Directors of Music (SEADOM).