Ungku Abdul Aziz
Malaysian economist (1922–2020)
Ungku Abdul Aziz bin Ungku Abdul Hamid (28 January 1922 – 15 December 2020) was a Malaysian economist and university professor. He was the 3rd Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya from 1968 to 1988 and the 1st General Director of the Council on Language and Literature of Malaysia from 1956 until 1957.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Ungku Abdul Aziz (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Jan 28, 1922, died Dec 15, 2020.1
About
He was the first to be awarded the title of Royal Professor (Profesor Diraja) in 1978.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ungku Abdul Aziz, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
- Tabung HajiFounder14
Early life and education
Early life, family and education
He was born into the Johor Royal Family. His father, Ungku Abdul Hamid Ungku Abdul Majid was a Malayan prince and military officer. He was a cousin of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas and Syed Hussein Alatas as well as Sultan Ibrahim of Johor on his father's side. His father was of Malay and Turkish descent, while his mother was English.
He graduated from the English college at Johore Bahru and the Malay school in Batu Pahat. He received Diploma in Arts from Raffles College, Singapore (now University of Malaya) and Bachelor of Arts in economics at University of Malaya, Singapore (now University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur) in 1951. He then defended his doctoral dissertation in Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) in 1964.
His daughter, Zeti Akhtar Aziz, was the former governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysia's central bank.
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Academic career
He worked in the state administration of Johore, in 1952–1961 as a lecturer at the University of Malaya (Singapore), with a one-year break, when he headed the Council on Language and Literature of Malaysia.
In the years 1962–1965, he was a professor and dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur), while in 1968–1988, he was promoted to vice-chancellor of this university. He was the first Malaysian to become the vice-chancellor of University of Malaya. On his initiative, the university created the Botanical Garden, the Museum of Asian Art, the cooperative bookstore.
He is the author of the economic justification of a number of industrial projects, more than 50 books and monographs on social and economic problems of Malaysia, consultant to UN specialized organizations (ILO, UNESCO, UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East).
On 17 June 1978, he was awarded the rank and title of Royal Professor (Profesor Diraja) by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia. Prior to 2025, he was the only person in Malaysia to hold that rank, until Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, who was also his half-cousin, awarded in the same rank.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ungku Abdul Aziz (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: mathematician, economist.6
- Date not recordedWorked at Universiti Malaya4
- Date not recordedFounded Tabung Haji5
Personal life
Awards
- 1993Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize13
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataUngku Abdul Aziz on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaUngku Abdul Aziz on Wikipedia
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- 9Wikidataplace of death, as reported
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- 12Wikidataspouse, as reported
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- 14WikidataTabung Haji, Founder
- 15Wikimedia CommonsUngku Abdul Aziz photo by Victor pogadaev, CC BY-SA 4.0