About Students Information Centre(SIC)

UNITAR has its roots in the vast experience, vision and mission of the Chairman and Chief Executive Office of KUB Malaysia Berhad, Datuk Hassan bin Harun. It began in 1964 when he enrolled for a teaching stint in the Kelantan English School, a private school in Kelantan, for three months. This experience made him dream to someday build and manage a Malay private school. In 1967, Datuk Hassan joined Islah English School, another private school in Kelantan. In May 1968, he joined Institut Pendidikan for another two years, but his dream was still not realised.

It was not until the end of 1969 that Datuk Hassan came close to fulfilling his aspirations. With a few friends who had just graduated from university, he set up Maktab Adabi. This marked the beginning of the Adabi Group. Datuk Hassan left Adabi in 1971 to pursue a university education. In 1976, he returned to Adabi with a renewed spirit and vision, and he set about bringing the Adabi Group to new heights of distinction.

He set up another private institution of higher learning, Institut Teknologi Tun Abdul Razak (ITTAR) in 1991. ITTAR is now one of the leading Bumiputera-owned providers of education in the country, offering more than nine diploma, certificate and pre-matriculation programmes.

From ITTAR, Datuk Hassan envisioned another monumental project: to set up and manage a futuristic private bumiputera-owned university. He realised that there has to be a new approach to the setting up and managing of such a university. For this to take place, a paradigm shift had to be engineered in the educational system. The concept of a virtual university, where students and faculty members engaged in learning and teaching activities separated by distance and time, was still a new concept, and had to be pursued with thought and care.

In early 1996, ITTAR and KUB IT, two wholly-owned subsidiaries of KUB Malaysia Berhad, formed a project team to study Datuk Hassan's vision and to come out with original concepts and plans. These were then presented to the Prime Minister, the Honorable Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Our Prime Minister agreed with the concepts and proposal. They were then presented to the Minister of Education, the Honorable Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak on 6 December 1996.

On 22 January 1997, the Minister of Education accepted the concepts and proposal of the virtual university, which was then named as 'Universiti Internasional Tun Abdul Razak'. The name was later changed to Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR).

On 6 November 1997, Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak and the family of the late Tun Abdul Razak, agreed to the use of the name of Tun Abdul Razak, our Father of Development, as the name of the university.

On 18 December 1997, the formal invitation to set up the university was given to KUB Malaysia Berhad. The university was subsequently launched on 21 December 1998. It received the letter of establishment from the Ministry of Education in February 1999. In January 2000, UNITAR is formally registered with the Ministry of Education.

The establishment of this university is indeed a great achievement for Malaysia. It plays a significant part in the national agenda which aims to liberalise and democratise education in this country.

KUB Malaysia Berhad, Malaysia’s first co-operative to successfully metamorphose into a public-listed company, is taking a quantum leap by setting up the first virtual university of its kind in the region.

Universiti Tun Abdul Razak is founded on a very sound philosophical base. It derives its strength from a combination of values of universality of education and training, strong commitment to excellence, customer focus, and trust and respect for individuals who continuously support each other in a cohesive team.

It is supported by a strong belief that knowledge is the instrument by which we seek universal truth. It is knowledge that differentiates truth from falsehood, right from wrong. It guides us towards rational behaviour, the doing of good and the avoiding of the immoral and unethical. It nurtures strength of character which is the real basis for excellence in everything that we do.

UNITAR is committed to providing a learning support system that is directed towards pedagogical needs of learners, its principal customers. This is to ensure that the learning environment that UNITAR creates will fulfil the requirements of developing balanced and well-rounded individuals.

It is based upon the premise that education is the right of every citizen irrespective of race, colour, religion or cultural differences. This is because we trust in the potential of people and respect their differences. To this end it is envisaged that within the next few years, the fields of study will be increased to include Arts and Sciences to meet the demand and taste of a wide variety of students.

The structure, system and strategies that UNITAR employs emphasize the importance of purpose, process and people. UNITAR values an outstanding team rather than extraordinary individuals. UNITAR has a very clear purpose. Universal knowledge should be democratised to reach all individuals who wish to continually learn so as to belong to a society that is knowledge-based. To achieve such a noble purpose, education must necessarily be of high quality, affordable and easily accessed at any time from anywhere.

UNITAR employs an educational process not merely in tandem with the times but more importantly because it strongly believes that this is the way of the future in education. The borderless world created by the advent of technological advancement demands a paradigm shift in our approach to teaching and learning. By carefully exploiting state-of-the-art information, multimedia and telecommunication technologies, we have found the way to establish a university that promises to strike a balance between the demands for providing education as a social responsibility and not merely commercial objectives. Our commitment is to ensure that education is not underlined by commercial objectives per se. The process that we have selected clearly enables us to be connected to other universities throughout the globe. This advantage is being exploited for the maximum benefit of students.

UNITAR places tremendous importance on people. The technology employed is simply meant to deliver knowledge rather than to be sophisticated. It also aims at developing skills and enhancing competencies that will be highly demanded in the future world of work. It does not distinguish between those who want to study and those who want to work. The flexibility it offers appeals to those who are currently employed without having to leave their jobs. Similarly, those who register for a degree could simultaneously seek employment without having to leave their jobs. Similarly, those who register for a degree could simultaneously seek employment without jeopardising their studies. In other words, there is no distinction between part-time and full-time students. The beauty here is that people can study and work at the same time.

UNITAR therefore completely allows continuous learning at the students’ own pace and space in the comfort of their own place, at home, or elsewhere. Thus, it eliminates accommodation and travel costs as well as travel risks. It strengthens family bonds too. It is upon this set of values that we build, to pioneer virtual education which we strongly believe is the obvious way forward into the next millenium.