Universiti Teknologi MARA

MARA Technological University is a public institution of higher education with its main campus located in Shah Alam, Selangor. In 1956, the RIDA (Rural & Industrial Development Authority) Training Centre (Malay: Dewan Latihan RIDA) was created with the goal of assisting Malay people living in rural areas. It first opened its doors to around fifty pupils. Since then, it has developed into the greatest institution of higher education in Malaysia in terms of the physical infrastructure it has, the number of professors and staff members it employs, and the number of students it enrols.

There is one main campus and 34 other campuses spread out around the region that make up this institution. It has more than 500 different programmes, all of which are taught in English and vary from the undergraduate level to the doctoral level. Around 170,514 full-time and part-time bumiputera students as well as foreign students call this institution their home. The postgraduate programme is available to bumiputera students as well as foreign students, however it is not available to non-bumiputera students.

In 2019, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) submitted its corporate name change to Arshad Ayub University (Malay: Universiti Tun Arshad Ayub) to honour the country's education icon and its founding father, Arshad Ayub, which is subject to regulatory clearance. This move was made to honour Arshad Ayub. The Ministry of Education has not yet decided whether or not to give its blessing to the suggested name. Universiti DiRaja Malaysia is yet another potential moniker for the university (English: Royal University of Malaysia).

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) was initially established as the RIDA (Rural & Industrial Development Authority) Training Centre (Malay: Dewan Latehan RIDA). Onn Jaafar, the founder of United Malays National Organization and a former president of the organisation, was the primary motivation behind the establishment of UiTM (UMNO). Following his research trip to Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) in 1951 to investigate the country's rural development programme, he came up with the idea for the project. In a document, it was explained how RIDA came into being, as well as its goals of reestablishing rural society and improving the economic situation of rural Malay people. In the same year that it was established, the Federal Legislative Council was responsible for passing a measure that eventually became known as Paper No. 10/1951. The rationale for the establishment of RIDA, as well as the need of doing so, are outlined in Section 5 of the law. Section 8 also makes use of the phrase kampong, which literally translates to "village" and is associated with the Malay people.