Universiti Teknologi MARA

The MARA Technological University (Malay: Universiti Teknologi MARA; Jawi: اونيۏرسيتي تيكنولوڬي مارا; abbr. UiTM) is a public university in Malaysia, based primarily in Shah Alam, Selangor. It was established to help rural Malays in 1956 as the RIDA (Rural & Industrial Development Authority) Training Centre (Malay: Dewan Latihan RIDA), and opened with around 50 students. It has since grown into the largest institution of higher education in Malaysia as measured by physical infrastructure, faculty and staff, and student enrollment. Since becoming a public university despite its name, UiTM is no longer affiliates with Majlis Amanah Rakyat.
The university comprises one main campus and 34 satellite campuses. It offers over 500 programmes taught in English that range from undergraduate to the postgraduate level. The school is home to some 170,514 full-time and part-time bumiputera and international students. Postgraduate programme is open for international students and bumiputera but not for non-bumiputera.
In 2019, UiTM proposed its corporate name change to Arshad Ayub University (Malay: Universiti Tun Arshad Ayub) to honour the country's education icon and its founding father, Arshad Ayub, which subject to regulatory approval. The proposed name is still pending for approval from the Ministry of Education. Another proposed name is Universiti DiRaja Malaysia (English: Royal University of Malaysia) as UiTM is technically a de-facto Royal University due to by law (Act 173) Yang Di-Pertuan Agong is the only person who shall be appointed as Chancellor plus UiTM Convocation Ceremony used the Royal Protocol approved by Istana Negara with a Nobat-like Ensemble used for the parade of Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor or their representative.
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) began as the RIDA (Rural & Industrial Development Authority) Training Centre (Malay: Dewan Latehan RIDA), and was inspired by Onn Jaafar, the founder and former president of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). The idea was conceived as a result of his study visit to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1951 to look into its rural development programme. A paper outlined the establishment of RIDA and its objectives of rebuilding rural society, as well as improving the economy of rural Malays. A bill, Paper No. 10/1951, was passed by the Federal Legislative Council in the same year that led to its establishment. Section 5 of the bill outlines the justification and the necessity of establishing RIDA. The word kampong (lit. 'village'), which is synonymous with the Malays, is also used in Section 8.
The RIDA Training Centre began operations in Petaling Jaya, Selangor (currently Jalan Othman satellite campus) under its first principal, Syed Alwi Syed Sheikh Alhadi in November 1956. It was officially opened by Ismail Abdul Rahman, the Minister for Trade and Industry on 14 February 1957. The training centre conducted pre-university courses, business skills training, and several external professional courses offered by established international bodies, such as the London Chamber of Commerce, the Australian Chartered Secretaryship, the Australian Society of Accountants, and the British Institute of Management. After the Federation of Malaysia was created in 1963, the training centre began to admit native students from Sabah and Sarawak, and more academic programmes were offered. In 1964, the RIDA Training Centre held its first convocation and 50 graduates were awarded certificates by Tun Abdul Razak, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The training centre later became known as MARA College (Malay: Maktab MARA) in 1965. The name change meant that the college no longer operated under RIDA and instead became the most important unit of the MARA Training Division. MARA stands for Majlis Amanah Rakyat (transl. Council of Trust for the Indigenous People), which was founded under the leadership of Tan Sri Arshad Ayub, took over and strengthened the role and responsibilities of RIDA. When the British Institute of Management ceased conducting external examinations in 1966, MARA College began running its own Diploma in Business Studies. International recognition for the course came from Ealing Technical College in London, which also became its external examiner.
In 1967, the college was upgraded to Institut Teknologi MARA (ITM). It was established in response to a need in Malaysia for trained professionals, especially among bumiputera. This shortage was identified through a manpower survey conducted by the government in collaboration with the United Nations in 1965. Acknowledging the fact that education holds the key to positive social engineering processes, ITM made education easily accessible primarily to the bumiputera Malays and indigenous bumiputera of the Malay peninsula (such as Jakun, Senoi) and East Malaysia (such as the Kadazan-Dusun, Melanau, and Dayak). It mainly catered to semi-professional courses predominantly in the science and technology in fields such as engineering, applied sciences and architecture, building, and planning. However, realising the importance of other complementary nation-building fields, it also included a repertoire of other salient "management and humanities-based" fields such as business studies, hotel and catering management, mass communications, public administration, law, secretarial science, and art and design. By 1973, branch campuses had been set up in Perlis, Sabah, and Sarawak. The development of ITM occurred in three stages: the first phase (1967–1976) came with the declaration of the institute as an autonomous body with its own 300 acres (120 ha) campus in Shah Alam, and was placed under the Ministry of Rural Development; and the second phase (1976–1996) involved ITM rapidly harnessing its potential as an institution of higher learning, which led to the ITM Act of 1976 that placed the institute directly under the Ministry of Education's jurisdiction.
In 1992, ITM applied to open a radio station for its communication students but was rejected. However, the students were allowed to do practical training at RTM.
The third phase (1996–1999) occurred as a result of an amendment to the ITM Act of 1976, which granted the institution all the powers of a university on par with all the universities in the country, despite retaining its name. Among the significant changes was a creation of board of directors and Senate. Many principal officers of ITM were re-designated, such as the Branch Director being renamed Rector, the Head of Campus became Provost, and Principal and Senior Lecturers were re-designated as professors and Malay Associate Professors respectively. Each School was redesignated as a Faculty. ITM was also given the power to confer degrees up to Doctor of Philosophy level, the unique power to establish courses and campuses abroad with permission from the Minister of Education, and to conduct business, invest in shares, set up companies and engage in commercial research. Disciplinary powers over staff were transferred from the Minister to the board of directors. To improve staff accountability, the institute was allowed to impose a surcharge, and the procedural rights of students in disciplinary proceedings were strengthened.
In August 1999, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced the change in name of ITM to Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). With such acknowledgement from the government, the institution was heavily restructured to consolidate the university's resources for optimum productivity. Universiti Teknologi MARA Act 173 was drafted in conjunction with the establishment of UiTM. It is deemed essential as the Act provides guidelines for maintenance, smooth administration, and other pertinent matters. The Act also serves as an acknowledgement of the institution's transition from an institute to a university, and the authority bestowed upon it to function like any other university, including the offering of courses and the conferment of degrees at all levels.
In 2015, the university was granted autonomy status.
UiTM is Malaysia's largest institution of higher learning in terms of size and population and the largest university system in the country. Besides the main campus in Shah Alam, the university has expanded nationwide with 34 branch campuses, which collectively offers more than 500 academic programmes. UiTM established a system called 1 University Multi System (1UiTM), which designates an anchor university and 13 branch campuses. To qualify as a university system, accredited certification of the quality management systems for each UiTM campus must be done separately, which means that any certification granted to the flagship campus does not extend to the state campuses, and each state campus has to apply for its own certification.
UiTM is headed by a Vice-Chancellor. The system's flagship campus is situated in a designated area known formerly as Section 1 in Shah Alam. This campus houses the Chancellery and Registrar's Office and assumes the role of the administrative centre. The flagship campus (and its satellite campuses) only offer programmes in foundation, degree, and post-graduate levels. The anchor university consists of the main campus in Shah Alam and the Selangor Branch Campus (Puncak Alam, Selayang, Sungai Buloh, Puncak Perdana, Jalan Othman and Dengkil).
Satellite campuses relieve the flagship campus by accepting student overflow, which involves moving out some faculties from the flagship campus. Each satellite campus is led by an Assistant Vice-Chancellor or head of study centre.
Branch campuses are headed by Rectors, who are directly accountable to the Vice-Chancellor. UiTM has campuses in every state in Malaysia, except the Federal Territories. Each state may contain more than one campus. The flagship state campuses are led by the Rector and smaller campuses (called city campuses) are led by Assistant Rectors.
State campuses mainly offer pre-diploma and diploma-level programmes in themes or niches set by the flagship campus. Some degree and post-graduate programmes are also offered through a franchise agreement with the flagship campus.
As of June 2014, there are seven branch campuses which have been granted autonomous status—the Perlis, Perak, Terengganu, Sarawak, Malacca, Penang, and Pahang campuses. This is in line with the vision that all state campuses will eventually be given autonomous administration, giving each campus its own degree of creativity and to increase achievements in various aspects of the campus and its students. A significant feature of these autonomous campuses is the ability to hold their own convocation ceremonies and most executive decisions would not depend on the administration of the flagship campus.
The founding of UiTM Library began with the establishment of the RIDA Training Centre at Jalan Othman, Petaling Jaya, in 1956. It was initially known as RIDA Library, and was stocked with reading materials for accounting, bookkeeping, and London Chamber of Commerce (LCC) examination preparatory courses. Library administration operated in a room on the first floor of the old Administrative Department building at the RIDA Training Centre. The library was later moved to the ground floor of the Administrative Department annex to accommodate the increase of users and collections. In 1965, its name changed to MARA College Library in conjunction with the institution's name change, and it was administered by a certified officer in librarianship. The library collections at the time consisted only of books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and other foreign publications in English. On 14 October 1967, MARA College was renamed MARA Institute of Technology (ITM). In a short period of time, the Jalan Othman campus could no longer accommodate the number of new professional courses that indirectly caused an increase in the number of students. In 1972, the ITM main campus was built in Shah Alam. A four-storey building was specially designated as the ITM library, and was designed based on discussion with the Chief Librarian, in accordance to specifications for an academic library.
The library was officiated by the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdul Razak, on 29 July 1972, and it was named Tun Abdul Razak Library (Perpustakaan Tun Abdul Razak - PTAR) in his honour. On 26 August 1999, the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, announced that ITM had been upgraded to Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), and the new status transformed UiTM Library from a traditional library into a hybrid library in line with the development of current technology. The library internal processes are now automated, and UiTM Library services can be accessed online anytime. It functions as the primary source of online reference for users at all times.
There are 13 residential colleges which provide accommodation to students in the main campus. These colleges differ from one another in terms of room capacity, where some colleges accommodate two students per room while some can accommodate up to eight students per room. Residential colleges are not autonomous as they fall under the jurisdiction of UiTM, but the director of each college has some autonomy in governing these colleges.
The colleges are segregated by gender where different colleges cater only to either male or female students, except Kolej Teratai, where male and female students live in different blocks. Rental for residential colleges in Shah Alam campus is only free for first year students; a minimum fee is charged for second year students and above. First year students are not allowed to drive their own vehicles except for motorcycles. All colleges have access to free Wi-Fi service, which is part of the integrated wireless internet connection for the university itself.
As the main campus receives an increase in student enrolment each year, there are constraints on the residential college facilities. Many students in UiTM Shah Alam have to rent off-campus residential facilities on their own. To ensure the welfare and safety of the non-resident students who stay off-campus, the college management established a Non-Resident Management Unit to manage living environment matters for these students, which includes helping non-resident students search for accommodation within Shah Alam.
The university is made up of a number of faculties and academies. It is categorised into three main clusters: business and management, social sciences and humanities, and science and technology. The Academic Affairs Division, headed by a Deputy Vice-Chancellor, is responsible to ensure the soundness of the academic programs as well as the robust, uniform, and standardised academic delivery throughout the whole UiTM system across the nation.
The Senate is the highest authority in UiTM for all academic matters. It is chaired by the Vice-Chancellor and the membership comprises all Deans of faculties and academic centres, representatives from the Rectors of campuses, senior members of the academic staff, and a registrar. The Senate are responsible to create curriculum and academic programs; to set the standard of teaching, learning and training conducted at the UiTM; to determine the entry qualifications into any academic programs offered; and to endorse the results of student assessments and awards of all academic degrees at doctoral, master, bachelor, diploma and certificate levels.
As of May 2015, 470 programmes offered by UiTM include degrees at doctoral, master, bachelor, diploma, and certificate levels. There are 286 programmes based on science and technology while another 184 programmes are non-science and technology. In addition, 94 professional programmes (local and international) are offered by UiTM, including programmes certified by University of London International Programmes, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), the Chartered Institute of Transport (CIT), the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), London College of Printing, and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries of the United Kingdom.
In 1973, UiTM (then ITM) established ITM-Off Campus to provide opportunities for working adults to further and obtain a quality tertiary education. Classes are held after office hours on weekdays and on weekends, and courses are patterned after the full-time mainstream programs. The success of external program propelled UiTM toward embarking upon the distance mode. The Institute of Neo Education (iNED) which later renamed to Institute of Continuing Education & Professional Studies (ICEPS) in 2019 was formed in 2012 offering several diploma and degree courses on distance and out-campus mode.
In 2011, UiTM's research publication was ranked 5th nationwide by Web of Science. Scopus reported, a total of 6,863 papers has been published in academic journals by UiTM faculties from 2009 until 2013. It was cited in 7,479 papers with 32.7% of it was self-cited by UiTM's researchers.
The Institute of Research Management & Innovation (IRMI) is the research arm of the university. It was created to manage research, consultancy, intellectual property protection, commercialisation, and initiate new research and innovation activities. IRMI conducts seminars, workshops and roadshows to encourage and train the academics and non-academic staff on research and consultancy, securing research grants and projects, managing their finances, and publishing research work. It also handles the university's Research Ethics Committee. IRMI also organises expositions of innovations and research to encourage innovations and inventions within the university's environment.
UiTM's main campus in Shah Alam and its satellite campuses in the Klang Valley have been focusing on research excellence and postgraduate training since 2009 in response to the 10th Malaysia Plan, which include the Research and Development (R&D) Roadmap Action Plan. The UiTM R&D Roadmap specifically emphasised increasing the number of principal investigators and students to publish in Web of Science and Scopus journals. Research funding in UiTM has been steadily increasing from just over RM14 million in 2006 to RM50.4 million in 2011. Social science and humanities research comprised 20% of the secured funding.
To steer Malaysia towards becoming an innovation-based and knowledge-based economy, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) recognised six research institutions as Higher Institutions Centre of Excellence (HICoE) in 2009, including UiTM's Accounting Research Institute (ARI) for its research niche area in Islamic Finance Criminology. In 2014, UiTM's Malaysian Institute of Transport (MITRANS) was conferred as HICoE for the niche area of Halalan Toyyibban Supply Chain. Six UiTM's research institutions has been granted Centre of Excellence (CoE) status: the Institute of Science (IOS); the Institute of Infrastructure and Environmental Services and Management (IIESM); the Institute of Pathology, Medical and Forensic Laboratory (I-PPerForm); the Atta-Ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Product Discovery (AuRIns); the Integrative Pharmacogenomic Centre (iPROMISE); and the Institute of Business Excellence (IBE).
UiTM collaborated with Plantations International in 2022 to be its sapling research and development arm in Malaysia.
As one of the leading universities in Malaysia, UiTM has been rated positively by local and international bodies. In 2010, UiTM was rated "Tier 5: Excellent" in the 2009 Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) Rating System for Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia (SETARA '09). UiTM maintained its rating of "Tier 5: Excellent" in the 2011 Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) Rating System for Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia (SETARA '11). In the same year, UiTM was rated 2 stars in the 2011 Malaysian Research Assessment Instrument (MyRA) where universities are given "star ratings" for their research, development and commercialisation efforts. In 2013, UiTM was awarded by Ministry of Higher Education as Entrepreneurial University of the Year.
In global rankings, UiTM best performance was in 2014 when it positioned as the 168th best university in Asia, despite maintaining its seventh position locally. In 2016, five subjects were ranked in QS World University Ranking by Subject, an increase of two subjects from the 2015 ranking.
The university holds a number of formal links with institutions from around the world to share teaching and research and facilitate staff and student exchanges. As of June 2019, a total of 25 universities, 9 embassies, and 2 others have been identified as global partners.
The University, which is publicly funded, only admits bumiputera students and excludes citizens of other races, with recent protests in May 2024 of the Malacca Campus from students of admission of non-bumiputera students out of xenophobia and institutional racism.
UiTM graduates have found success in a wide variety of fields, and have served at the heads of diverse institutions both in the public and private sector. As of November 2014, more than 600,000 alumni have graduated from UiTM over the course of its history. A dedicated UiTM Office of Alumni Relations was established in 2000 which to maintain and update a database of alumni in collaboration with faculties and campuses. Fraternity among alumnus was further uphold with the establishment of UiTM Budiman Foundation which helps the needy students and give financial support to current student who further studies in postgrad level.
Some of the notable alumni include the following: