Malaysian engineering students are about to get their hands on the same software that runs inside more than 275 million vehicles worldwide. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) will become the first university in ASEAN to fold BlackBerry's QNX Everywhere programme and the QNX operating system into its curriculum, giving local graduates a skill set that mission-critical industries actively hire for.
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What the UKM and BlackBerry deal covers
Announced on 11 June, the move is the latest milestone in a multi-year partnership between BlackBerry and UKM. QNX Everywhere will be offered as a curricular elective, with courses expected to start in late 2026. Course design is already underway this week, involving BlackBerry and QNX representatives, Pi Square Technologies, UKM leadership, and government and industry stakeholders, with programme registration formally opening for students.
Through QNX's one-to-many model, UKM students in computer science and engineering get free access to the QNX Software Development Platform 8.0. That is the same platform used by nine of the world's top 10 medical device manufacturers and embedded across automotive, aerospace, semiconductor, robotics, and industrial automation systems.
"With QNX Everywhere, we are giving Malaysia's next generation of engineers hands-on experience with the trusted software foundation that powers safe, secure, real-time systems," said Raj Jain, Vice President of QNX Engineering and Head of R&D in APAC.
Why it matters for Malaysia's Industry 5.0 push
Malaysia's policy stack, from Industry4WRD and the National 4IR Policy to NIMP 2030 and Malaysia Digital 2030, leans heavily on the country producing engineers who can build intelligent, connected, safety-critical systems. The gap has always been between policy ambition and actual classroom capability. Putting a production-grade embedded OS into a degree programme is a concrete attempt to close it.
The timing also tracks a bigger industry shift BlackBerry calls Physical AI: artificial intelligence applied in real-world environments where failures have physical consequences, such as cars, robots, and factory floors. Engineers who can work in that space are scarce globally, which is exactly the kind of leverage a fresh graduate wants.
Building on the cybersecurity groundwork
This expansion follows the 24-week Cyber Pathways professional certification programme the two parties launched in May 2026, taking the partnership beyond cybersecurity and into foundational software. It also slots UKM into QNX's growing academic network, which already spans institutions in Canada, the US, South Korea, India, and Germany.
No fees or enrolment details have been announced beyond the free SDP 8.0 access for computer science and engineering students; those should surface as registration opens.
For students weighing their elective choices next semester, the takeaway is simple: this is a line on a CV that carmakers, med-tech firms, and chipmakers all recognise.