Skip to main content
Back

Elevate your child’s future

Create a plan to fund your child’s education now so they won’t miss out in the years ahead.

When should you start to plan?

Learn more

Where to study? Local or overseas

Learn more

Investment goal calculator

Calculate now

Monthly income explorer

Calculate now

How can you achieve your goal?

Learn more

Our income solutions

Explore now

When should you start to plan?

It’s essential to put an investment plan in place now, or as soon as you become parents.



1.

You have less time to prepare (18 years at most) compared with other financial goals, such as retirement.

2.

You may decide to have a larger family, so you should factor in the expenses of education for more than one child.

3.

University costs are steadily rising1, so it’s vital that you can afford to pay tuition fees.

 

Tuition fees - it's not cheap2

Country

Annual tuition fees

Malaysia local public universities

RM 6,100 – 100,044

Malaysia local private universities

RM 11,539 – 134,879

Australia

RM 82,968 – 173,849

United Kingdom

RM 101,311 – 303,835

United States

RM 209,900 – 231,125

Country

Annual tuition fees

Malaysia local public universities

MYR 2,080 – 4,620

Malaysia local private universities

MYR 11,250 – 80,000

Australia

MYR 82,968 - 173,849

United Kingdom

MYR 101,311 - 303,835

United States

MYR 209,900 - 231,125

Where to study? Local or overseas

Location determines how much you should save.

 

The total cost contains two components

totalcost

Tuition fee

Living cost



Counting the cost of tuition

  • Attending a public or private Malaysian university is generally cheaper than studying overseas
  • Overseas institutions typically charge international students higher tuition fees than local students
  • Fees also depend on the type of degree your child pursues, e.g. a master’s degree or a PhD.

Most popular study destinations for Malaysian students3

 

Country

Number of students

United Kingdom

16,350

Australia

15,113

United States

8,469

Egypt

4,556

Japan

2,439

Russia

1,838

Indonesia

1,745

New Zealand

1,730

Ireland

1,397

India

1,235

Total number of Malaysian students studying abroad in 2017

63,253

Living costs – location matters

Scenario 1 – Studying locally:

scenario1

Scenario 2 – Studying abroad:

How can you achieve your goal?


Our adviser’s tips:




Our adviser’s tips:

 

1. Aim high

1. Aim high

  • You should budget for the highest-cost education you can afford.
  • By saving more, you can create a financial buffer that will guard against unknown factors, such as currency fluctuations and the effect of inflation on tuition fees and living costs.
  • Aiming high will give you more freedom to choose the location and type of university your child eventually attends.
  •  

     

2. Be prepared for sudden changes

2. Be prepared for sudden changes

  • Government policies and school admission requirements for international students may alter at any time, so be ready to reassess your investment plan.
  • You may need to choose another university in a new location with different costs. Have at least two alternative options on standby.
  •  

     

3. Take a phased approach

3. Take a phased approach

  • With an infant, you have 18 years to build a university education fund. However, if your child is already in primary school or you want to send them to an overseas high school, then your time frame is more limited. Either way, it’s during this first part of the investment plan that you are advised to invest in asset classes that seeks to provide capital appreciation, such as equity.
  • In the latter stages of the investment plan, when your child is a few years away from entering university, it makes sense to allocate more money to asset classes with lower volatility, such as bonds or multi-asset funds with income distribution features.

Speak with a professional and review your plans regularly. It’s always a good idea to discuss your financial goals with a financial adviser.

 

Achieve your financial goals with our innovative income solutions

 

 

 

Our income solutions aiming to deliver recurrent income

 

 

 

Our adviser’s tips:

 

 

 

Our adviser’s tips:

Asia Pacific REITs

A focused portfolio of income-generating

properties

 

Global multi asset diversified income

A strategy aims for income returns, capital growth and managed volatility

chart

Global multi asset diversified income

A strategy aims for income returns, capital growth and managed volatility

Shariah global REITs income

Diversify with Islamic global REITs for income and growth potential

Asia Pacific REITs

Potential returns from two key sources: capital appreciation and dividend income

Asian fixed income

Discover why Asia is a market worthy of its own strategic asset allocation

SGD income

Capture Asia investment opportunities in SGD terms

Global multi asset
diversified income

A strategy aims for income returns, capital growth and managed volatility

 

Shariah global
REITs

Diversify with Islamic global REITs for income and growth potential

 

Asia Pacific REITs

 

Potential returns from two key sources: capital appreciation and dividend income

 

 

Asian fixed income

 

Discover why Asia is a market worthy of its own strategic asset allocation

 

SGD income

 

Capture Asia investment opportunities in SGD terms

 

 

Malaysia: Datuk Mohd Ghazali Abas, Secretary-General of the Malaysian Education Ministry, noted that student living expenses and tuition fees were rising by 10% each year. Source: Malay Mail, 12 September 2019; UK: In June 2019, the University of Oxford planned to hike the tuition fees levied on international students by 10.2% for the 2018/2019 academic year. Source:  The Oxford Student, 1 June 2019; US: A 2019 study showed that over the past decade, the total cost of further education in the US had grown by 25.3% at private colleges and 29.8% at public colleges. Source: CNBC, 13 December 2019; Australia: Tuition fees for international students in Australia had risen from AUD26,258 in 2015 to AUD30,840 in 2018 – a 17.5% increase. Source: Consultancy firm Studymove, International Tuition Fees Survey 2018

2 Malaysia local public university websites – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and Universiti Sains Malaysia, as of 29 May 2020. The lower-range tuition fees refer to Bachelor of Education with Honours (Sports and Recreation), Bachelor of Education with Honours (Teaching English as Second Language (TESL)), and Bachelor of Education with Honours (Special Education). The upper-range tuition fees refer to a Dental Degree. Malaysia local private university websites – Management and Science University, HELP University, and Taylor’s University, as of 29 May 2020. The lower-range tuition fees refer to Bachelor in Accountancy (Honours), Bachelor in Computer Engineering (Honours), and Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Electrical and Electronic) (Honours). The upper-range tuition fees refer to Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. In some cases, the published tuition fee information covered either individual semesters or the entire length of the course. The annual tuition fees are calculated by multiplying individual semester costs by two, or dividing the entire course fees by the duration of the course (in years). Overseas university websites – Australia: University of Melbourne, Australian National University, and University of Sydney; United Kingdom: University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and University College London; US: California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Overseas data as of February 2020. For Australian and United Kingdom institutions, arts courses, such as English, philosophy, and history charged fees at the lower end of the scale, while medicine, dentistry, and veterinary science charged the most. In US, Massachusetts Institute of Technology charged at the lower end of the scale, while California Institute of Technology charged at the higher end of the scale. Overseas tuition fees are based on the top-ranking universities in the respective countries published by Times Higher Education in November 2019 and converted into Malaysian ringgits using the exchange rate as of 9 March 2020. Tuition fees vary depending on the chosen education programme. These numbers are for illustrative purposes only.

3 Source: Global Flow of Tertiary-Level Students, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2017