KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Arshad Ayub, one of the country's highly revered educationist, passed away early this morning.
His son, Azmi Arshad, conveyed the matter through a Facebook post today, and said funeral arrangements will be notified later as his late father's body was still at the hospital.
Arshad, 93, served as the first director of Institut Teknologi Mara (now UiTM) between 1965 and 1975.
He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) last Tuesday due to deteriorating health and passed away at 2.06am today.
Arshad was born into a rubber tapper family in Muar, Johor on Nov 15, 1928.
However, neither his family's financial hardships nor did episodes of malaria and typhoid fever discourage Arshad from pursuing a formal education.
In 1954, Arshad graduated with a diploma in Agriculture from the College of Agriculture in Serdang, Selangor. He went on to pursue a degree in Economics and Statistics at the University College of Wales Aberystwyth in the United Kingdom and graduated in 1958.
Upon graduation, he served as an assistant economist at the Rural and Industrial Development Authority (Rida) and later entered the civil service.
Arshad's involvement in education began when then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak tasked him to helm the Mara College of Business and Professional Studies in 1965.
With his far-sighted visions, Arshad transformed the college into Institut Teknologi Mara (ITM) in 1967, that later emerged as the country's largest institution of higher learning, UiTM.
After a 10-year tenure at ITM, Arshad left the institution to become the deputy governor of Bank Negara Malaysia (1975-1977) and was subsequently appointed as the deputy director-general in the Economics Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Department (1977–1978).
Arshad also went on to become the secretary general of three ministries — the Primary Industries Ministry (1978), Agriculture Ministry (1979 – 1981) and the Land and Regional Development Ministry (1981 – 1983).
Arshad retired from the civil service in 1983.
The national education icon is survived by his wife, Puan Sri Zaleha Mohd Arshad and seven children.