Lowe and Partners has been appointed communications partner to the International Medical University (IMU), Malaysia's first private medical university.

IMU marks its 20th anniversary this year, which has seen the university grow from a small medical college of just 46 students and 5 partner universities for its Partner Medical School degree programme in 1992, to an internationally recognised medical and healthcare institution, with 3 core business units - Education, Healthcare and Research.

The appointment follows the completion of a strategic branding and communication plan for the university, in which Lowe partnered brand and communications consultancy AllAboutBrands Sdn Bhd. 

Announcing the appointment, Lowe's Managing Director Khairudin Rahim said, "This partnership is a perfect example of how we bring added value to a client and their brand.  IMU came to us with a clear brief to assist in the development of a strategic recruitment plan for a particular programme.  But as the team from Lowe and AllAboutBrands delved deeper and understood the brand and business better, it became clear that there was a much bigger need - to distill further the IMU brand promise, and help IMU communicate its already established leadership position in healthcare education, as demonstrated by its 37 international partner universities.

"IMU created the Partner Medical Schools education model - a world first - that allowed Malaysian students to undergo an IMU designed 5-semesters programme, before going on to some of the world's best medical universities to complete their degree.  It was, and remains, a unique education model that has allowed young Malaysians, who otherwise would not have been able to realise their dreams of a medical degree, to become doctors."

The success of the model, said Khairudin, then allowed IMU to expand into other areas of medical education - dentistry, pharmacy, clinical and non-clinical programmes, as well as complementary medicine. Today, IMU is Malaysia's only educational institution devoted 100% to medical and healthcare education.

"But IMU's very success inspired competitors to come onboard.  While none have been able to emulate the IMU model completely, they are trying to capitalise on it. Our task has been to elevate and emphasise the IMU differentiators and cement its position as the preferred choice for world-standard medical and healthcare education," said Khairudin, clearly inspired by the brief.

Using the outcomes from the strategic branding and communication plan, Lowe will develop a series of communications campaigns designed to drive reputation building, while continuing to be firmly focused on recruitment. Lowe will also work with IMU to develop a series of communications initiatives to support IMU's 20th anniversary celebrations, which will kick off on March 2, 2012, with the IMU University Day.