PETALING JAYA: The newly-launched Jeffrey Cheah Foundation will see the transfer of equity ownership  worth approximately RM700 million of the not-for-profit Sunway Education Group, made up of Sunway University College, Monash University Sunway campus, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Sunway International School.

The foundation was launched here yesterday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak, in the presence of Selangor Sultan, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah. Under the foundation, operating surpluses from the Sunway
Education Group will be reinvested into the universities and schools.

Today, these education institutions account for over 16,000 students, of which 30 per cent are from 80 different countries, Sunway Group said in a statement released at the launch. The foundation will continue to disburse scholarships and research grants to worthy individuals in various fields of study.

The Jeffrey Cheah Foundation is a not-for-profit entity to ensure that the assets, funds and operating surpluses
are used to perpetuate the cause of bringing quality education to future generations of diligent and deserving
Malaysian students.

The foundation was named after the founder and chairman of conglomerate Sunway Group, Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey
Cheah, who is a leading figure in the corporate world.

The first-of-its-kind structure in Malaysia within the field of private higher education, it has been modeled along the lines of some of the oldest and most eminent  universities in the world such as Harvard University based in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, the United States.

It carries on the mandate of the Sunway Education trust which has, since its inception in March 1997, has given out more than RM50 million in scholarships to deserving and needy students.

The foundation's board of trustee apart from Cheah will include other prominent leaders in the business and
socio-economic arenas like Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, Tan Sri Dr RV Navaratnam, Tan Sri Rainer Althoff, Tan Sri Dr Lin See Yan, Datuk Razman M Hashim and Professor Richard Graeme Larkins.