- 2025 digital twin campus was about making online learning more engaging and give SeGi a scalable route into overseas markets
- 18-months after launch, UniVerse has network of UniHubs, turning Hii’s vision into a broader asset-light internationalisation
When SEGi University launched SEGi UniVerse in March 2025, at a time when much of the hype surrounding the metaverse had already faded, Clement Hii (pic, below) was not trying to sell the technology as a new education product.
His thinking was more pragmatic.
“We are not creating a new product to sell, per se,” the SEG International Bhd group managing director told Digital News Asia immediately after the launch when asked about the market opportunity of the digital twin it had created. “What we are doing is creating a platform that enhances the value of existing products.” In other words it was not an either/or option.
Those existing products were SEGi’s open and distance learning (ODL) programmes and, to a lesser extent, its conventional programmes, where part of the learning can be delivered online.
Hii’s interest for reaching audiences predates his career in education. He started out in journalism, contributing to the Borneo Bulletin while still a teenager in school before going on to become the founding chief editor of The Borneo Post at just 19. His later career took him into education, property and media, but the common thread has been distribution — how to reach people more effectively.
On its ODL and conventional in-class programmes, Hii saw a weakness in both. Online learning had made education more accessible, particularly after Covid-19, but it could also leave students isolated and easily distracted. The challenge was not simply putting lectures online. It was keeping students engaged enough to complete their studies.
“With ODL, we can theoretically recruit students from all over the world, but it doesn’t happen,” he said. “Hence, the thinking around the UniVerse is, let’s create this platform and offer it as an added value to their learning experience. It might just do better for the students, both academically, and in terms of their engagement and interaction.”
That was the starting point for UniVerse, an ambitious multi-million-ringgit virtual campus combining virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive learning. While declining to share the cost, it is reliably estimated to be in the high single digit millions.
SEGi says it allows students to attend live classes, interact with lecturers and classmates, use VR laboratories, access real-time translation and move around a digital replica of the university. Importantly, access is not limited to VR headsets which offer an immersive experience, but also with the platform available through desktops, mobile devices and the web.
For Hii, the attraction was that it could make remote learning feel less remote.
Rather than asking a student to watch a Zoom class or retrieve a recorded lecture, he wanted to give them somewhere to enter, meet classmates and interact with the university.
“Why not create this platform to draw them in as an added value?” he said.
A borderless play
But Hii’s bigger ambition was international.
“After Covid, the world became borderless,” he said. “I saw the opportunity. Why not we set up regional locations?”
These locations allowed SEGi to deliver Malaysian qualifications overseas without requiring every student to relocate to Malaysia.
Calling them Regional UniHubs, these local centres in various countries are operated with partners who are responsible for recruiting students and providing them physical support, while the curriculum, teaching, assessment and qualification remain with SEGi in Malaysia.
“Education is a business of confidence, a business of trust,” Hii said. “If they want to pay money to a university in Malaysia which they have never seen, it’s better for them to have some form of physical interaction.”
The UniHubs were intended to provide that bridge. Students could access tutorial and administrative support locally, meet other SEGi students and use the connectivity and hardware required for the virtual platform.
At launch, SEGi told Bursa Malaysia that it had established UniHubs in 19 cities across 14 countries. It also acknowledged risks around internet connectivity, reliance on VR technology, online teaching quality and maintaining accreditation.
Local partners could receive as much as 30% of revenue in return for student recruitment and local support. SEGi, meanwhile, could add overseas students to classes without carrying anything close to the cost of building and operating another physical university.
Hii also sees compelling economics in the model. With the teaching infrastructure already in place, increasing the number of online students does not necessarily increase costs proportionately.
“Since I’m already conducting those classes in Malaysia, they are coming in online. It doesn’t add on additional costs,” he said. “If I add on another 10,000 students, my cost remains the same.”
That scalability helps explain why Hii was prepared to spend what he estimated at between RM4 million and RM5 million developing UniVerse, with further investment likely as AI and other features evolved.
“We are trying to make whatever we’re already offering, better. This VR platform is not a standalone product.”
From 19 cities to more than 30
Eighteen months later, the clearest evidence that Hii’s idea has moved beyond the launch stage is the expansion of the UniHub network.
SEGi’s 2025 annual report says UniVerse is now supported by Regional UniHubs across more than 15 countries and 30 cities. Its current UniVerse website lists locations across 16 markets, including Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
That represents meaningful expansion, although SEGi had set itself a more ambitious target at launch: 50 cities by 2026. Its public disclosures do not yet indicate that this target has been reached.
SEGi entered 2026 with improving financial momentum. Revenue rose 7.6% to US$51.02 million (RM207.5 million) in 2025 from US$47.37 million (RM192.7 million) in 2024, while profit before tax increased 87.3% to RM10.3 million from RM5.5 million. Net profit attributable to shareholders climbed 52.6% to RM8 million from RM5.25 million. The group attributed the stronger profitability primarily to higher student enrolments. While it did not disclose UniVerse’s individual financial contribution, SEGi identified the platform and the expansion of its regional UniHubs as important pillars for future growth and international student recruitment.
[RM1 = US$0.246]
The virtual product offering has expanded as well. UniVerse now markets more than 30 undergraduate and postgraduate ODL programmes.
More significantly, the business model around the technology has become clearer. UniHub partners are offered a revenue-sharing model and can earn from student support and other services. SEGi retains curriculum ownership, teaching, assessments, quality assurance, academic results and ultimately the awarding of its qualifications.
That is close to the model Hii outlined in that conversation after the launch: a distributed education network with Malaysia at its academic centre and relatively light physical infrastructure in overseas markets.
The group’s financial performance has also strengthened since UniVerse was launched, although the 2025 financial report does not disclose how much the virtual platform itself has contributed.
For FY2025, SEG International recorded revenue of RM207.5 million, up 7.6%, while profit before tax jumped 87.3% to RM10.3 million. The company attributed the improvement primarily to higher student enrolments but did not disclose how many came through UniVerse or its overseas UniHubs.
Momentum continued into the first half of 2026. Revenue for the six months ended June 30 rose to RM116.6 million from RM97.4 million a year earlier, while profit before tax increased to RM7.8 million from RM2.35 million. Again, SEGi did not separate UniVerse enrolments or revenue from its broader business.
At launch, SEGi said UniVerse was not expected to have a material impact on FY2025 earnings, although it anticipated a positive contribution in subsequent financial years.
The next test, therefore, is not simply whether SEGi can open more UniHubs. It is whether those hubs can consistently recruit and retain meaningful numbers of students.
That takes the story back to Hii’s original motivation.
He was not betting that students would pay simply because a university had a metaverse campus. He was betting that technology could address two much older problems: the poor engagement of distance learners and the high cost of taking a university overseas.
For working adults in particular, he saw a large population that wanted qualifications but could not put careers, families or finances on hold to attend university full time.
“Life is a continuous learning journey,” he said. “The market is huge for working adults to upgrade themselves.”
UniVerse was his attempt to make that journey more engaging while giving SEGi a way to pursue students almost anywhere.
As Hii put it shortly after the launch: “The world is our oyster.”
First draft of article created with the help of AI. The published version was overseen by an editor.