Actually one of the biggest pet peeves i have is with the following two statements:

1. That particular university has the most employed graduates or that the graduates are highly employable.
That really doesn't make any sense except as a marketing gimmick. The reality is that most if not all of a particular institution's graduates would be eventually employed. The real question is how many of those students are employed within the industry or area of their studies or more importantly - how many of the graduates are earning at least 30% more than the national average of computing-based entry level jobs.

2. Graduates in a particular institution are quite competitive in the Industry.
Define competitive. Do you mean adaptable? What is the measure of the research? How many companies have stated that and from which particular batch or year? It's not a good definition if it's merely anecdotal or here-say. But this is something a lot of universities use as their marketing campaign.

And another thing - I have always stated that the landscape of computing or market-leaders in tertiary education will always change due to various factors. APU and MMU might be the best 10 years ago (and they still might) but because of lecturer mobility, focus (too much research-driven or too business oriented) or even business decisions (too much diversification or dilution of core areas) - a leading institution may lose their place. Now recently i was present in a competition that had two tracks (this was organised by a renowned corporate giant's IT arm) - one is a pure programming-based track and the other is a logic problem hunting, both of which required a high level of mathematics and programming know-how (maths is primary). The winners of the competition were surprising - UM swiped all the top three prizes for the first track while Tunku Abdul Rahman University College(TARUC), University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), KDU University College and First City University College won the various accolades. MMU and APU was present there.

Now, this is just one competition only and is not representative of the whole eco-system but one of the most telling signs is the lack of mathematics fundamental in students. UM proved to have the most proficient student in this. Again - this is not representative of the whole student body but i generally feel that most universities cringe away from the hard maths subject (which tends to have the highest failure rates - and that is bad for business).

And don't let anyone tell you otherwise - Maths is CRUCIAL for high-level programming.

So yeah - I would advise you to check out Sunway or even UM for that matter. They must be doing something right. Don't just stick with APU just because of their prior reputation alone.

How are they recognized? Who recognized them?

Go to a good university first. Don't get too caught up on all the certification marketing talk. When you work - then do your required certification. That's how it works. University should just ensure that your fundamentals and core soft skills are up to speed. That's all.

Yep. That's the one.

MMU Computing students are generally up to par because of the strong fundamentals. I know that for a fact as i know some of the lecturers who work there. Solid people. But like i said - employment within 6 months after graduation is really nothing to shout about. Unless the kids are downright born with a silver-spoon or damn lazy, most would get employed straight away. The trick is the question - how many are employed within their respective fields at a higher than normal rate due to their potential.

And to answer this - should've worded it better, more collaborative partnerships (at least in IT)

http://www.apu.edu.my/our-courses/undergra...tive-industrial

I am actually quite familiar with most of the so-called partnership, some of which are no longer applicable. It's all just gimmicks with the exception of 1 or 2. Do you know how easy it is to get those partnerships? It's get and don't do anything with it. I am familiar with the MyUnAlliance initiatives as well as the partnership with MDEC which actually they partner anyone who is willing to. Microsoft Academic Partner is a free thing. And so on...