UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA

‘Inspiring excellence in education and advancing knowledge to the highest degree’

The University of Malaya (UM) is proud to claim the title of the country’s premier university. The university is the oldest and most highly respected tertiary institution in Malaysia and one of the longest established in the region.

The origins of the university can be traced back almost a century to 1905 with the creation of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School (later renamed the King Edward VII College of Medicine) and its subsequent amalgamation, in 1949, with Raffles College (founded 1929) in Singapore to form the national university of the Federation of Malaya under the name the University of Malaya.

In 1957, a branch of the university was created in Kuala Lumpur and the teaching of the first batch of 300 undergraduates began in temporary accommodation as work went quickly ahead on the new permanent campus: a 750-acre green-field site in the rolling hills and thick jungle of the Pantai Valley, close to the city centre.

In 1962, the two branches were granted autonomy and the first Chancellor (Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra: the country’s first Prime Minister) and the first Vice-Chancellor (Professor Sir Alexander Oppenheim: an internationally renowned mathematician) were appointed.

The university, at this time was very small - a few hundred students in four Faculties (Agriculture, Arts, Engineering, and Science) – but it had the crucial remit to lay the intellectual foundations for the new nation by creating a cadre of highly educated and imaginative individuals to plan and lead national development in all fields of human activity. 

Many of the nation’s leaders in politics, industry and commerce, the arts and academia were the product of this early period of establishment and consolidation. 

In the ensuing 40 years, the University expanded beyond recognition with new Faculties, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and buildings appearing almost every year, and staff and student numbers steadily increasing.   

Today, in the first years of the new millennium, UM is a thriving and growing academic community of close to 31,500 individuals; 20,500 undergraduates and nearly 8,000 postgraduate students, nearly 2,000 academic staff, 250 administrative and over 2,000 support staff. The original four Faculties have now grown into two Academies, six Centres, twelve Faculties and four Institutes, ranging from Arts and Social Sciences, through Dentistry, Engineering, Law, Medicine and Languages to Science and Technology.

Both UM’s past and its plans for the future reflect the commitments stated in its motto, mission and objectives: to function as a world-class ‘multi-university’ noted for excellence in its teaching and research, and for the relevance of its activities to personal, national and international development and well-being.