National University of Malaysia



The National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, abbreviated as UKM) is a public research university located in Bandar Baru Bangi, Hulu Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia. Its teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC), is located in Cheras and also has a branch campus in Kuala Lumpur.

There are 170,500 undergraduate students enrolled, and 90,105 postgraduate students of which 40,368 are foreign students from 35 countries. Since its establishment in 1970, the Malay language was used as the university's medium of instruction.

History
A Sponsoring Committee chaired by Syed Nasir Ismail, a Malay intellectual, was set up to prepare a report recommending the establishment of UKM. Other prominent members of this committee include Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (Tun), Malaysia's fourth Prime Minister, who was then the Education Minister, and Dr. Mohd Rashdan Haji Baba, who later became UKM's first Vice-Chancellor.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia opened its doors on 18 May 1970 to 192 undergraduate students in Jalan Pantai Baru, Kuala Lumpur, a temporary campus housing three main faculties, the Faculties of Science, Arts and Islamic Studies. In October 1977, UKM moved to its present premises which form the main campus in Bangi. The campus has a size of 1096 ha. UKM has two health campuses, the Kuala Lumpur campus in Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, and the UKM Medical Centre in Cheras. The Kuala Lumpur campus consists of the Faculties of Health Sciences, Pharmacy, Dentistry and the Pre-Clinical Departments of the Medical Faculty. With a size of 20 ha, the Kuala Lumpur campus was established in 1974.

The campus in Cheras consists of the Medical Faculty, the UKM Teaching Hospital (Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz UKM (HCTM)) and the UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI). The Cheras campus was opened in 1997. Besides these campuses, UKM operates seven research stations (RS): The Tasik Chini RS, The Marine Ecosystem RS, The Langkawi Geopark RS, The Marine RS, The Fraser's Hill RS, The Plant Biotechnology RS and in the main campus itself, the UKM Campus Living Laboratory, which comprises the UKM Permanent Forest Reserve, or its Malay name, Hutan Simpan Kekal UKM as well as the Fernarium and the Herbarium.

UKM was awarded the status of a Malaysian Research University in October 2006 by the Ministry of Higher Education, a move designed to try to propel the universities into leading research universities in line with the Higher Education Strategic Plan 2007–2020.

In 2006, UKM won the Prime Minister's Quality Award.

Coat of arms
The current coat of arms of the UKM was first designed by university staffer Mohd Aris Atan and has been in use since 1972. It was modified to its present form by publications officer Zulkifli Ibrahim, which was launched on 29 July 2000 in conjunction with the university's 30th anniversary, with stripes added to the tiger's body. The arms is depicted as a quartered shield featuring an atomic symbol, a compass, a gear, a Malayan tiger and the national flower, Bunga Raya, or hibiscus rosa-sinensis, with an overlaid book placed on top of it. The atomic symbol represents science, the compasses and gear represent technology, the tiger represents strength and courage and the book represents knowledge. It is blazoned:


 * Shield: Tierced per pall reversed, the dexter Or a conventional representation of an atom Sable, the sinister Azure a pair of Compasses erect and extended between a demi cogwheel Argent, the base Argent a Bunga Raya or hibiscus flower proper, a chief Gules thereon a tiger passant to the sinister also proper.
 * Crest: An open book fesswise proper.

The first coat of arms of the university designed by the First Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, was different from the present one. It was blazoned as: "Tierced per pall reversed, the dexter Gules on a bend Azure fimbriated Argent a cresent and a fourteen-pointed federal star Or, the sinister Vert a tiger holding a torch and a kris proper and the base Or a Bunga Raya or hibiscus flower also proper." The crest featured a scroll inscribed with the words 'Zidni Ilman', which means increase me in knowledge, a reference to the word in Surah 20 Taha, Verse 114 of the Quran.

In 2010, the University's corporate logo was created by its Centre for Corporate Communications, featuring the coat of arms accompanied by the names of the university in Malay and English. The Malay name (UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA) is big and presented in upper case, with the letters U, K and M bigger than the rest. The English name (The National University of Malaysia) is small, italicised and presented in sentence case.

The National University of Malaysia is currently one of the three public universities in Malaysia to adopt its coat of arms, the other two are the University of Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia.

List of vice-chancellors
The following is a list of vice-chancellors of the National University of Malaysia.

Notable alumni

 * Anwar Ibrahim, 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia
 * Mohd Rashid Hasnon, former Deputy Speaker of Dewan Rakyat and former Deputy Chief Minister I of Penang
 * Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysia's first astronaut
 * Syed Hussein Alatas, Malaysian academician, sociologist and politician
 * Anthony Loke Siew Fook, Minister of Transport of Malaysia
 * Liow Tiong Lai, former Minister of Transport of Malaysia
 * Jemilah Mahmood, Chief of the Humanitarian Response Branch, United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) in New York
 * Anwar Fazal, Father of Malaysian NGO Movement – Honorary Doctorate in Law, 1997
 * Razali Ibrahim, former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department
 * Ramlan Bin Ibrahim, diplomat, Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations
 * Ayman Rashdan Wong, writer
 * Jess Lee, singer
 * Mohamad Fuzi Harun, 11th Inspector-General of Royal Malaysian Police
 * Mohammad Tashim, 4th Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs of Brunei
 * Nenney Shushaidah Binti Shamsuddin, one of the two female Syariah High Court Judges in Malaysia
 * Abdul Hamid Bador, 12th Inspector-General of Royal Malaysian Police
 * Mohd Zuki Ali, 15th Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia
 * Hasrin Sabtu, former Commissioner of Royal Brunei Police Force
 * Alirupendi, former Joint Force Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces
 * Raed Qaddoura, Palestinian academic and writer.
 * Zaini Ahmad, Bruneian politician and rebel during the 1962 Brunei revolt

Rankings
When the Times Higher Education (THE) Guide University Rankings was published in October 2014, it was reported that UKM, along with Universiti Malaya, opted not to submit data for consideration. The UKM Strategic Centre deputy executive director Associate, Professor Dr. Masturah Markom, responded by saying that the rankings were unfair to the Malaysian educational context. She specifically cited the measurement of "industry income" in the THE methodology of university assessment, stating that Malaysian industry input cannot compete with other countries such as the United States of America. This is despite the fact that only a 2.5% weightage is allocated to "industry income" in the methodology, with more conventional categories such as teaching and research still making up 90%.