Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) aspires to be a global university that benchmarks its achievements to excellence in the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and expertise emphasising on the nurturing and holistic development of its scholars and students towards nation building. In an effort to realize this vision, UTAR strives to attain the following goals among the many it sets forth:

• Conduct major research programmes, which broaden the horizons of knowledge and seek answers to problems of importance;

• Maintain strong postgraduate programmes, which encourage intellectual, research and personal development of postgraduate studies;

• Expand the expertise, services and resources offered by UTAR through the development of cooperative educational programmes with other institutions and professions and other local, state, federal and international agencies;

• Inculcate among the faculty and the academic community a culture of commitment to effective dissemination of knowledge and vigorous scholastic research activities with publication of high international standards.

To achieve the above goals, it became imperative for UTAR to offer relevant postgraduate programmes to attract talents who aspire to seek a career in research or academia. Hence, the Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research (IPSR) in UTAR was established and commenced operations in September 2004 with the following principal areas of responsibilities:

• Serves as a central body for coordinating all postgraduate programmes offered by the Faculties in order to facilitate the administration of the programmes which includes admission, student & academic records, examination and postgraduate activities;

• Facilitates research services, managing of research projects, planning and monitoring of research budget, assisting in sourcing of research funding, facilitating consultancy services, establishing academic and industry links and facilitating the establishment of Centres of Excellence in strategic research areas.
  
   

UTAR began its postgraduate programme in January 2006 by taking in 43 students into 5 Master’s programmes. The number of postgraduate programmes offered increased progressively as more faculties were involved. Figures 1 and 2 below provide pictorial illustration of these increases.

Figure 1- No. of Postgraduate Programmes Offered in 2006 – 2013

 Figure 2 - No. of Faculties Offering Postgraduate Programmes in 2006 - 2013

Two more new Master’s programmes, Master of Business Administration (Corporate  Management) and Master of Psychology (Industrial and Organisational Psychology), were offered in 2013 to provide more choices to students who were interested to pursue further studies in the areas.   

At the end of 2013, a total of 24 Master’s and 10 PhD programmes were offered. Tables 1 and 2 below illustrate the number of Master’s and PhD programmes offered by UTAR as of 31st December 2013, ranging from language, communication, business and finance, management, social science, information and communication technology, mathematics, science and engineering with 707 registered students, consisting of 537 Master’s and 170 PhD students.

Table 1 - Master’s programmes offered in UTAR as at 31st December 2013

Table 2 - PhD programmes offered in UTAR as at 31st December 2013

With an established reputation of offering quality yet affordable postgraduate programmes, UTAR experienced steady enrolment of students into various postgraduate programmes since the initial enrolment of 43 students in January 2006 intake into 5 Master’s programmes. As at 31^st December 2013, UTAR recorded a total cumulative enrolment of 1266 postgraduate students. Figures 3 – 4 provide comparative analysis on the enrolments from 2006 – 2013.

Figure 3 – Analysis of Enrolment of Postgraduate Students in 2006 – 2013

Figure 4 – Analysis of Enrolment According to Mode of Study in 2006 – 2013

As at 31^st December 2013, 273 postgraduate students had graduated from various Master’s and PhD programmes. Table 3 and Figure 5 provide the numbers and a comparison of students graduated from various postgraduate programmes.

                   Table 3 - No. of postgraduate students graduated from various postgraduate programmes as of 31st December 2013

Figure 5 – Comparison on Number of Postgraduate Students Graduated from Various Programmes in 2006 - 2013

To ensure quality of graduates from UTAR postgraduate programmes, as well as to benchmark the research work of its postgraduate students against international standards, UTAR has made it a policy that the external examiners for the examination of theses/ dissertations of candidates in postgraduate programmes by research and postgraduate programmes by mixed mode must be appointed from among distinguished academics or researchers from overseas with recent publications in international refereed journals. Figures 6 and 7 illustrate the external examiners appointed for thesis and dissertation examination in year 2013.

                    Figure 6 – Analysis on the Appointment of External Examiners for Thesis Examination (for Postgraduate Programmes By Research) in 2013