Universiti Teknologi MARA

Universiti Teknologi MARA

Seal of Universiti Teknologi MARA Seal of Universiti Teknologi MARA
Former names	RIDA Training Centre (1956–1965) MARA College (1965–1967) MARA Institute of Technology (1967–1999)
Motto	Usaha, Taqwa, Mulia (Malay)
Motto in English	Endeavour, Religious, Dignified
Type	Public
Established	1956
Endowment	RM1.99 billion (2016)
Chancellor	HRH King Abdul Halim Yang di-Pertuan Agong
Vice-Chancellor	Hassan Said
Students	168,865 (2015)
Undergraduates	73,671 (2015)
Postgraduates	11,690 (2015)
Location	Shah Alam , Selangor , Malaysia
Campus	13 state campuses 21 satellite campuses
Colours	Vivid violet and Prussian blue
Website	www.uitm.edu.my

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) (English: MARA University of Technology) is a public university based primarily in Shah Alam, the state capital of Selangor, some 28 kilometres (17 mi) west of country's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Established in 1956 as RIDA (Rural & Industrial Development Authority) Training Centre (Malay: Dewan Latehan RIDA), it opened its door to some 50 students with a focus to help the rural Malays. Since that time it has grown into the largest higher education institution in Malaysia by physical infrastructure, staff·organization (academic and non-academic) and student enrollment.

The university comprises one main campus, 13 autonomous state campus and 21 satellite campus. With 17,000 of academics and non-academics staff, UiTM offered some 500 programmes ranging from foundation to postgraduate level. It is home to some 168,000 students: bumiputeras and international students, in full-time and part-time mode. The teaching is fully conducted in English.

History

Founding

The MARA University of Technology began as RIDA (Rural & Industrial Development Authority) Training Centre (Malay: Dewan Latehan RIDA), inspired by Onn Jaafar, the founder and former president of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). The idea was conceived as a result of a study visit to Ceylon in 1951 (now Sri Lanka) to look into its rural development programme. A resulting working paper outlined the establishment of Rural and Industrial Development Authority (RIDA) and its objectives of rebuilding the rural society, as well as improving the economy of rural Malays. A bill Paper No. 10/1951 was passed by the Federal Legislative Council on the same year that led to its establishment; reveals an interesting insight into the connection between RIDA Training Centre and the Malay community. Section 5 of this paper outlines the justification and the necessity of establishing Rural Industrial Development Authority (RIDA). The word kampong (English: village), which is synonymous with the Malays, is also used in Section 8 of the paper.

Training centre

In November 1956, RIDA Training Centre began operations in Petaling Jaya, Selangor (currently Jalan Othman satellite campus) under its first principal, Syed Alwi Syed Sheikh Alhadi. It was officially opened by Dr 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 formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, the training centre began to admit native students from Sabah and Sarawak, and more academic programmes were offered. In 1964, 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 (English: Council of Trust for the Indigenous People) under the leadership of Tan Sri Arshad Ayub, took over and strengthened the role and responsibilities of RIDA. In 1966, when the British Institute of Management ceased conducting external examinations, 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.

The logo of MARA Institute Of Technology (Malay: Institut Teknologi MARA, ITM) from 1967 until 1999.

Expansion and growth

In 1967, the college was upgraded to MARA Institute Of Technology (Malay: Institut Teknologi MARA, ITM). Its establishment came as a response to a need in Malaysia for trained professionals, especially among bumiputeras. This shortage was identified through a manpower survey conducted by the government in 1965 collaboration with the United Nations. Acknowledging the fact that education holds the key to positive social engineering processes, ITM has made education easily accessible primarily to the bumiputera Malays and indigenous bumiputera of the Malay peninsula (such as Jakun, Senoi), and those from the 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, realizing the importance of other complementary nation-building fields, it has 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, as well as art and design. By 1973, branch campuses had been set up in Perlis, Sabah and Sarawak. The development of ITM was in three stages. The first phase (1967-1976) came with the declaration of the institute as an autonomous body with its own 300-acre campus in Shah Alam, and was placed under the Ministry of Rural Development. The second phase (1976-1996) saw ITM rapidly harnessing its potential as an institution of higher learning. It led to the passing of the ITM Act of 1976 that placed the institute directly under the Ministry of Education.

University status

The third phase (1996-1999) came about as a result of an amendment to the ITM Act 1976 which granted the institution all the powers of a university and on par with all the universities in the country, despite retaining its name. Among the significant change was a creation of Board of Directors and Senate. Many principal officers of ITM were re-designated such as the Branch Director was renamed Rector, the Head of Campus became the Provost, while Principal and Senior Lecturers were re-designated as Professors and Associate Professors, respectively; each School was redesignated as a Faculty; ITM was given the power to confer degrees up to Doctor of Philosophy level; ITM was given the unique power to establish courses and campuses abroad with permission from the Minister of Education; the Institute was conferred additional powers to enable it 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 bestowed the power to impose a surcharge; and the procedural rights of students in disciplinary proceedings were strengthened.

In August 1999, the Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced the change in name of ITM to MARA University of Technology (Malay: Universiti Teknologi MARA, UiTM). With such acknowledgement from the government, a major restructuring exercise was carried out in order to consolidate the University's resources for optimum productivity. As UiTM moves forward, it remains focused on academic excellence, innovation, socio-economic goals, worldwide accreditation, globalisation and new technologies in order to contribute to industry and national development. The 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 and smooth administration as well as other pertaining 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. This includes the offering of courses of studies and the conferment of degrees at all levels.

File:MARA University of Technology (UiTM) Campus System.png

UiTM's 1 University 2 Systems

Campus

MARA University of Technology (UiTM) is Malaysia's largest institution of higher learning in terms of size and population. Beside the main campus in Shah Alam, the university has expanded nationwide with 13 state campuses and more than 21 state satellite campuses, which collectively offers more than 500 academic programmes. UiTM established a system called 1 University 2 System (1U2S). Based on this system, there is an anchor university and 12 state universities.

The anchor university assumes the role of the administrative centre and the state universities will be the autonomous state administration. UiTM headed by a Vice Chancellor while the state campuses is headed by a Rector, who is directly accountable to the Vice Chancellor. The anchor university consists of the Shah Alam Main Campus and satellite campuses (Puncak Alam, Selayang, Sungai Buloh, Puncak Perdana, Jalan Othman, Section 17 and Dengkil), while the autonomous state campuses consists of all the state campuses and state satellite campuses. All branch campuses will be given the autonomous status in phases. As of June 2014, there are seven state campuses which have been given the autonomous status namely, the Perlis, Perak, Terengganu, Sarawak, Melaka, Pulau Pinang and Pahang campuses.

Type	Location	Established	Ref
UiTM Selangor
Main/Anchor	Shah Alam	1967	[1]
State	Puncak Alam	2009	[2]
Satellite	Puncak Perdana	2005	[3]
Satellite	Sungai Buloh	2012	[4]
Satellite	Selayang	2010	[5]
Satellite	Jalan Othman	1956
Satellite	Section 17	1983	[6]
Satellite	Dengkil	2016	[7]
UiTM Johor
State	Segamat	1985	[8]
Satellite	Pasir Gudang	2013	[9]
UiTM Kedah
State	Merbok	1997	[10]
UiTM Kelantan
State	Machang	1985	[11]
Satellite	Kota Bharu	2007	[12]
UiTM Malacca
State	Alor Gajah	1984	[13]
Satellite	Jasin	2011	[14]
Satellite	Bandaraya Melaka	2007	[15]
UiTM Negeri Sembilan
State	Kuala Pilah	1999	[16]
Satellite	Seremban 3	2014	[17]
Satellite	Rembau	2016
Satellite	Nilai	2016

Type	Location	Established	Ref
UiTM Pahang
State	Jengka	1993	[18]
Satellite	Raub	1997	[19]
Satellite	Kuantan		[20]
UiTM Perak
State	Seri Iskandar	1985	[21]
Satellite	Tapah	2010	[22]
Satellite	Teluk Intan
UiTM Perlis
State	Arau	1974	[23]
UiTM Penang
State	Permatang Pauh	1996	[24]
Satellite	Bertam	2011	[25]
Satellite	Balik Pulau	2011	[26]
UiTM Sabah
State	Kota Kinabalu	1973	[27]
Satellite	Tawau	1996	[28]
UiTM Sarawak
State	Samarahan	1973	[29]
Satellite	Samarahan 2	2014	[30]
Satellite	Mukah	2007	[31]
UiTM Terengganu
State	Dungun	1975	[32]
Satellite	Kuala Terengganu	2008	[33]
Satellite	Bukit Besi	2013

Academic

Faculty founding
Faculty/academy	Year founded
Business & management
Faculty of Accountancy	1956
Faculty of Business & Management	1956
Faculty of Hotel & Tourism Management	1967
Faculty of Information Management	1970
Social science & humanities
Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies	1965
Faculty of Law	1968
Faculty of Art & Design	1970
Academy of Language Studies	1972
Faculty of Communication & Media Studies	1972
Academy of Contemporary Islamic Studies	1975
Faculty of Music	1984
Faculty of Education	1996
Faculty of Film, Theater & Animation	1998
Science & technology
Faculty of Computer & Mathematical Sciences	1966
Faculty of Applied Sciences	1967
Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying	1967
Faculty of Civil Engineering	1967
Faculty of Electrical Engineering	1968
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering	1968
Faculty of Sports Science & Recreation	1995
Faculty of Health Sciences	1996
Faculty of Pharmacy	1996
Faculty of Chemical Engineering	2000
Faculty of Medicine	2002
Faculty of Dentistry	2006
Faculty of Plantation & Agrotechnology	2010

The university is made up of a number of faculties and academies. It is categorised into three main cluster namely 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.

Senate is the highest authority in the 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 consisting of degrees at doctoral, master, bachelor, diploma and certificate levels. A total of 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. This include 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, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries of United Kingdom and many more.

Research

MARA University of Technology (UiTM) is a self-described "research-intensive entrepreneurial university" considered by the QS World University Rankings to have "very high research activity". 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.

Institute of Research Management & Innovation (IRMI) is the research arm of the university. It was created to manage research, consultancy, intellectual property protection, commercialisation, 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. In the same vein, IRMI organises expositions of innovations and research to encourage innovations and inventions within the university’s environment.

UiTM in Shah Alam main campus 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 included the Research and Development (R&D) Roadmap Action Plan. The UiTM R&D Roadmap specifically emphasized on two research performance indicators, namely to increase 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 made up around 20% of the secured funding.

To steer Malaysia towards becoming an innovation-based and knowledge-based economy, Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in 2009 recognized six research institutions as Higher Institutions Centre of Excellence (HICoE) 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) 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 namely Institute of Science (IOS), Institute of Infrastructure and Environmental Services and Management (IIESM), Institute of Pathology, Medical and Forensic Laboratory (I-PPerForm), Atta-Ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Product Discovery (AuRIns), Integrative Pharmacogenomic Centre (iPROMISE), and Institute of Business Excellence (IBE).

Reputation

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 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 168th best university in Asia, despite maintaining its 7th position locally. In 2016, five subjects were ranked in QS World University Ranking by Subject, an increase of two subjects from 2015 ranking.

QS World University Rankings
Year	World	Asia	Malaysia	Ref
2012	676	238	9
2013	701+	201–250	7
2014	651–700	168	7
2015	701+	201–250	7

2016 QS World University Rankings by Subject
Subject	Score	World	Malaysia
Accounting & Finance	60.6	151–200	5
Education	61.3	201–250	6
Mechanical Engineering	56.7	201–250	7
Electrical Engineering	57.4	251–300	8
Computer Science & Information Systems	55.6	351–400	8

International partners

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 January 2016, a total of 110 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been rectified with global partners.

• Curtin University, Australia
• RMIT University, Australia
• University of South Australia, Australia
• University of Wollongong, Australia
• Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali, Brunei
• University of Lethbridge, Canada
• Clausthal University of Technology, Germany
• Heidelberg University, Germany
• University of Kiel, Germany
• University of Stuttgart, Germany
• Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
• International IT University, Kazakhstan
• University of Canterbury, New Zealand
• Mahidol University, Thailand
• Hacettepe University, Turkey
• Yıldız Technical University, Turkey
• Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
• Teesside University, UK
• University of East London, UK
• University of Salford, UK
• University of Sussex, UK
• Lehigh University, USA
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
• Ohio University, USA

Alumni

Main article: Universiti Teknologi MARA people

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 aims to maintaining and updating a database of alumni in collaboration with faculties and campuses; promote strategic relationships; maximizing social capital and to promote the generation of income through entrepreneurial activity with alumni. 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:

• HRH Siti Aishah: The 11th Raja Permaisuri Agong (Queen Lady Consort) of Malaysia.
• Richard Malanjum: Chief Judge at the High Courts of Sabah and Sarawak and former Judge at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court.
• Musa Aman: Politician – the 14th Chief Minister of Sabah.
• Rahmat Mohamad: The 5th Sectary-General of Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO).
• Kamarudin Meranun: Co-founder and Executive Chairman of AirAsia.
• Aminar Rashid Salleh: President and Chief Executive Officer of Perodua, Malaysia's largest automobile manufacturer.
• Shazalli Ramly: Chief Executive Officer of Celcom, a telecommunication conglomerate.
• Khamil Jamil: Managing Director of DRB-HICOM, one of Malaysia's leading corporation.
• Yuna: Malaysian singer-songwriter and businesswoman.
• Zaid Ibrahim: Politician – former Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of legal affairs.
• Azalina Othman Said: Politician – former Minister of Tourism and Minister of Youth and Sports.
• Mohd Zin Mohamed: Politician – former Minister of Works.
• Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud: Politician, lawyer and columnist.

External links

• http://www.uitm.edu.my/index.php/en Official website]
• http://www.uitm.edu.my/index.php/ms/ Official website] (Malay)