UNIVERSITI Teknologi Mara (UiTM) started as the Rural and Industrial Development Authority (Rida) Training Centre with 50 students in 1956 to help rural Malays.
It was renamed Mara College, it became Institut Teknologi Mara (ITM) in 1967 and was made UiTM in 1999.
It has since grown into the largest institution of higher education in Malaysia as measured by infrastructure, faculty and staff, and has around 170,000 students.
The university comprises one main campus and 34 satellite campuses. It offers over 500 programmes taught in English that range from undergraduate to postgraduate level.
ITM was established in response to a need in Malaysia for professionals, especially among Bumiputera. This shortage was identified through a workforce survey conducted by the government in collaboration with the United Nations in 1965.
Acknowledging the fact that education holds the key to positive social engineering, ITM made education accessible primarily to the Bumiputera. It focused on courses such as engineering, applied sciences, architecture, building and planning.
However, realising the importance of complementary nation-building fields, it 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, and art and design.
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 a 300-acre campus in Shah Alam, and was placed under the Rural Development Ministry. The second phase (1976-1996) involved ITM rapidly harnessing its potential as an institution of higher learning, which led to the ITM Act of 1976 that placed the institute under the purview of the Education Ministry.
The use of English is fiercely protected by many members of its faculties and ex-students, who know that mastery of the language has helped them progress in their careers.
Tan Sri Arshad Ayub, seen by many as the father of UiTM and the man who shaped the university's character in the early days, is responsible for this.
Having a genuine passion for the education and welfare of poor Bumiputera students and realising the mastery of the English language would be a prerequisite to more incredible things in life, Arshad was adamant that English must be used as the medium of instruction at ITM. And this remains.
Having English as the medium of instruction helps UiTM students have a better command of the language compared with their counterparts in other public universities. In the era of a globalised economy and the Internet world, mastery of the language can be a competitive tool.
The Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) is a government agency formed in 1966 under the Rural and National Development Ministry as the government's response to the first Malay Economic Congress lamenting the poor state of the Malays.
It was formed to aid, train and guide Bumiputera in education, business and industry.
UiTM has taken a 32-year journey to become what it is today, Malaysia's largest public university that has produced millions of Bumiputera graduates who lifted many families out of poverty. This achievement comes from efforts from all levels of government staff, ministers, and even prime ministers under the banner of Mara.
Therefore, as vital as the contribution by the late Arshad, the idea mooted by some quarters to change the name of UiTM to Arshad Ayub University belittles the contributions made by thousands of government servants, especially Mara staff, ministers, and prime ministers over the years.
UiTM staff, lecturers and management under the stewardship of Vice-Chancellor Professor Datuk Ts Dr Roziah Mohd Janor are striving to improve UiTM ranking and have more international collaborations with prestigious foreign universities.
Let UiTM's name remain to show our thanks to the thousands of unnamed contributors who had brought so many positive changes to the lives of so many Bumiputera.
The writer is head of the Innovative Electromobility Research Lab, School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, UiTM