Rating & Exposing Public University Wi-Fi Speeds in Malaysia

Dear Malaysian students, have you ever found yourself sitting in a university lecture hall trying to download important study materials only to be stuck with slow Wi-Fi? Well, worry not friend, because it’s not just a minor inconvenience. Studies have shown that sluggish university Wi-Fi can actually drag students down academically.

But the challenge actually exists beyond the classroom. Imagine trying to pay the kakak at the warong using QR, but you can’t cos the Wi-Fi is down. As a student, I’ve encountered these issues myself. So the question is… how good IS internet access in public universities?

Now, before you yell at us asking about private unis, the chances are, private uni students can afford their own broadband, mobile data, and other add-ons to support their internet usage. That’s not necessarily the same for those in public unis. Besides, what’s the point of taking in students of different backgrounds from all across Malaysia if you don’t have the facilities to accommodate them?

So to find out if public unis actually have decent Wi-Fi, we conducted speed tests at 20 public universities across Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak. How did we do that?

We got students from every state to test their university Wi-Fi

This is obviously not a one-woman job. So instead of spending too much money on gas and flight tickets to visit all these unis, we distributed a survey online to students from each public university. This was our methodology:

• We made a survey using Google Forms. We focused on speed, reliability, accessibility, and overall satisfaction with the Wi-Fi services.
• We randomly selected students from different programs and academic levels so we could get unbiased spokespeople from each uni.
• We distributed the survey online through social media.
• From there, the students would do on-site speed tests at different locations within their uni campus.
• They also provided feedback on their experiences which we then analysed.
• Finally, we ranked all the universities based on the data collected from the students.

Since the students tested their Wi-Fi at different times and places, we can’t say for sure if the bad connection is because of the location or time. Plus, we only had one person from each uni doing this, so the results may not be entirely accurate and this is more just to paint a general picture of each university’s Wi-Fi speed. So if you’re looking at this list and saying, “Eh where got! Mine is worse than that” then sorry lah…

Buuut after a week of compiling and checking the results, here’s what we found…

Which Malaysian public uni has the fastest and slowest Wi-Fi?

☝️The above is the full list of universities ranked according to the results of the speed tests we received. We don’t wanna bore you with the details of ALL of them, so we’ll just talk about the top 3 and bottom 3.

Top 3 universities with the fastest Wi-Fi:

1. UNIMAS (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) – 8pm, Sarawak.

“The wifi at UNIMAS is reallyyyy fast, which makes it easy for me to finish my assignments.” – UNIMAS respondent

It’s impressive to see a public uni 1,257km away from the capital city win the top spot on our list. For context, the average fixed internet speed ACROSS Malaysia is 133mbps, which means the internet speed at UNIMAS based on this speed test is more than TWICE the nationwide average. We can’t say for sure how they came out victorious but maybe UNIMAS has invested in top-notch network infrastructure and technology to provide high-speed internet connectivity across the campus?

2. UPNM (Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia) – 10pm, Kuala Lumpur.

 “My university management has provided us with very good WiFi connectivity on campus. The average speed of Wi-Fi at my university is 250mbps. However, if you wanna get the highest speed, students would go to Block Bestari.” – UPNM respondent

Coming in second is UPNM in Sungai Besi. Since it’s pretty much located smack dab in KL, that could be the reason behind their fast Wi-Fi. Plus, as Malaysia’s main academy for the armed forces, maybe they put their Wi-Fi speeds through the same military training their students have to go through.

Either that or the uni conducts regular maintenance and upgrades to keep the Wi-Fi system up-to-date and functioning at its best. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3. USM (University Sains Malaysia) – 8pm, Penang.

“USM is well-known for its strong Wi-Fi service. The Wi-Fi is excellent throughout the entire campus. There are a few specific places, such as the library, lecture halls, and hostels. With this reliable internet connection students are able to attend smooth online class and easily access the Internet without any interruption.”- USM respondent

It would be weird if Malaysia’s SCIENCE university wasn’t near the top of this list. USM’s effective management of network traffic and bandwidth allocation might contribute to the overall speed of the Wi-Fi. But being located in Penang, we would have also guessed it was because their Wi-Fi just wanted to be as kiasu as their drivers.

Bottom 3 universities with the slowest Wi-Fi:

3. UTHM (Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia) – 10am, Johor.

Taking third place from the bottom is UTHM in Batu Pahat with 10.8mbps. Again to contextualize that for you, the country with the slowest internet in the world at 11mbps is Yemen, which means the speed test results for the next three unis are lower than a LITERAL WAR ZONE. We asked a student from here to rate the internet speed and he gave a it a 1/5 aaand we can’t really blame him.

2. UniMAP (Universiti Malaysia Perlis) – 8pm, Perlis.

“The Wi-Fi is kinda slow, man. I had some online classes, but sometimes couldn’t even connect for online classes” – UNIMAP respondent

Coming second from the bottom is UniMAP with 8.23mbps. We found a Lowyat post from 2012 where the user explained that the reason behind UniMAP’s slow Wi-Fi was because of its outdated infrastructure and bigger campus. We’re not sure if that’s still the case today, but just imagine having to submit your assignments using a single-digit Mbps rate. Stress bro! 

1. UiTM (Universiti Teknologi MARA) – 1pm, Shah Alam.

As the main campus of the largest university in Malaysia based on size and population, we can sangka baik that the Wi-Fi speed result here might have been due to a bunch of students being connected to the same Wi-Fi network, at the same place, at the same time? 😅 In any case, less than 5 Mbps for a university in Shah Alam is definitely concerning. But at the end of the day, what does this tell us?

More than 50 percent of students feel like bad internet causes stress and frustration

We probably don’t need studies to tell us this, but research has shown that unreliable internet can impact stress levels. And that’s made clearer when you look at the students’ complaints. While some universities excel in their Wi-Fi connection, the inconsistency between unis is something to highlight. Of course, this may be because of the location or the time, but it’s just as likely that some public universities need internet upgrades to ensure a fulfilling and enriching educational experience for their students

All of that said, Wi-Fi speed is just one indicator of how good a university is and this list isn’t a definitive ranking of the overall best public unis in Malaysia. Heck, two of the universities with the slowest Wi-Fi speeds are globally ranked among the best universities in the country (which itself, may not be an accurate reflection of their quality either, but you get the point), so each university probably has its strengths and weaknesses. In the meantime, we hope this article sheds some light on this issue for university officials and… huh, just realised… what if their internet suddenly putus halfway through reading this? 💀