Universiti Sains Malaysia

Early concept and establishment

The idea of a university in Penang was first mooted by D. S. Ramanathan in 1959 in the State Assembly and later crystallised when he was nominated chairman of the Penang University Project committee. The acquisition of a piece of land in Sungai Ara was then followed by the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone by Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman on 7 August 1967.

In June 1968, the Federal Government commissioned a committee led by Mohamed Suffian to draft a Constitution for the new university. The committee then issued a report recommended that the university be autonomous and separate from the government and supported academic freedom in relation to the society and the Government.

USM was established as a statutory body and the second university in Malaysia in 1969. It was first known as the Penang Island University (Malay: Universiti Pulau Pinang). The university operated on borrowed premises at the Malayan Teachers' Training College at Gelugor, with only 57 science-based students in the beginning. At that time, there were only three schools of Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences and Physics and Mathematics. A year later, three non-science schools of Cultural Studies and Humanities, Educational Studies and Social Sciences were established.

Campus relocation and expansion

In 1971, it moved to its present 239-hectare site at Minden (formerly Minden Barracks of the British Far East Command) in Gelugor, 10 kilometres from the city of Georgetown. In 1972, two new schools of Pharmaceutical Sciences (first of its kind in Malaysia) and the Building Sciences and Architecture (a year later renamed School of Housing, Building and Planning) were established. The same year, USM's publication arm – Penerbit USM was established under its Department of Library. In 1973, the School of Applied Sciences was established (later renamed School of Engineering Sciences and Industrial Technology on 7 August 1984), followed by School of Mathematical Sciences in May 1974 (split from School of Physics and later renamed School of Mathematics and Computer Sciences in 1985) and School of Medical Sciences in 1979.

New branch campuses

In 1983, a health campus was opened in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, housing a training hospital in the beginning for fourth year medical students. The School of Medical Sciences moved there in stages, and became fully operational there in June 1990. Two more schools of Dental and Health Sciences were established on 1 December 1998 and 1 November 1999 respectively.

Realising the need for degree recognition by factories in the engineering field especially those in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, an Engineering Campus was established in 1986, first by occupying rental buildings in Ipoh, Perak. At the same time, the School of Engineering Sciences and Industrial Technology was split into the School of Industry Technology which remain at the main campus and the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering which were relocated to the Engineering Campus, then also known as Perak Branch Campus (Malay: Kampus Cawangan Perak). Two more schools were established there in 1989 – The schools of Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. December that same year, the Engineering Campus moved to its permanent site in Teronoh, 30 kilometres away from the state's capital and was officially opened by Sultan Azlan Shah on 13 September 1990.

The School of Chemical Engineering was established on 1 May 1992, and the School of Aerospace Engineering was established on 1 March 1999 through upgrading the campus' Aerospace Engineering Unit. In 1997, the Ministry of Education decided to transfer the engineering campus back to Penang to help fulfill the state's growing human resources needs in its Electrical and Electronics Sector. Thus, a new location in Seri Ampangan, Nibong Tebal was identified for the campus and it began operations there in June 2001, while its former site was taken over by Universiti Teknologi Petronas, a private university owned by Malaysian oil and gas multinational corporation Petronas.

Meanwhile, in the main campus, the School of Management was established on 1 December 1989, while the Institute of Postgraduate Studies (IPS) was established in 1991 to meet the needs of rising number of candidates in higher degree programmes. The School of Communication was established in 1993, and on 1 March 1995, the School of Computer Sciences was split from the School of Mathematical Sciences as a separate School. Towards the end of the 20th century, the School of Distance Education and the School of the Arts were established in 1998 and 1999 respectively. On 15 March 1998, USM became the second university in Malaysia to be corporatised after University of Malaya. USAINS Holding Sdn Bhd, USM's corporate arm was later established on 21 October 1999 to leverage the available skills for income-generating business development, replacing its Innovation and Consultancy Centre.