Universiti Utara Malaysia

The Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM; English: Northern University of Malaysia) was established on 16 February 1984 under the Universiti Utara Malaysia 1984 Order (Statutory). The university was corporatised on 23 April 1998. The university is located in Sintok, Kedah. The university was established with the specific mission of providing a leadership role for management education in the country. Thus, the university is also known as a management university.   UUM is ranked top 701 in the recent QS World University Rankings® 2015/16. 


The planning of the construction of this sixth university began in August 1983 when the Ministry of Education began to give form, in earnest, to the idea of setting up this university. On 19 October 1983, the Cabinet gave its official approval for this project in Kedah. At that time, the project was called "The Sixth University Project". Several months later, the temporary office of the sixth university, officially named Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), was officially opened on 15 February 1984 in Jitra. The primary objective for the setting up of this unique sixth public university has till this day been to train and produce the much needed pool of professionals in the areas of business and management for the local and international markets. 

Four months after its official opening, the UUM office was relocated to its provisional campus – the Darul Aman Campus – in Jitra, in June 1984, when the first phase of the project had been completed. The relocation was carried out so as to be able to usher in the very first batch of students for the academic year which commenced in early June 1984. The Darul Aman Campus was on a 62-acre tract of land in Bandar Darulaman. It was 18 km north of Alor Setar and 4.8 km from Jitra. . 

Meanwhile, the planning of a permanent campus for the university had already begun. This permanent campus was to be built on an area of 1,061 hectares in Sintok (in the district of Kubang Pasu), situated about 48 km north of Alor Setar and 10 km east of Changlun, a small town along the North-South Highway, near the Malaysia-Thai border.

The permanent UUM campus, referred to as the Sintok Campus, commenced operations on 15 September 1990. Situated in a former tin mining area, it is ensconced in a valley of lush tropical forests, embraced by blue hills, and watered by two rivers that flow along the middle of the campus. The rivers are Sungai Sintok and Sungai Badak.

The MYR580 million Sintok Campus was officially opened on 17 February 2004 by the Royal Chancellor, His Royal Highness Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah. The main buildings of the campus are the Sultanah Bahiyah Library, the Chancellery, the Sultan Badlishah Mosque, the Mu’adzam Shah Hall, the Tan Sri Othman Hall, the Sports Complex, the Varsity Mall, the Budi Siswa building, the Convention Complex, and the buildings that house the various departments of the Academic Colleges.  

In January 2008, a restructuring of the university academic system was undertaken. In this restructuring exercise, 13 faculties were merged and streamed into 3 main Academic Colleges, namely UUM COB (UUM College of Business), UUM CAS (UUM College of Arts and Sciences), and UUM COLGIS