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) 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. By the end of 2006, 12 Master‘s and 2 PhD programmes were offered with total enrolment of 101 students consisting of 26 Master‘s by Research, 29 Master‘s by Mixed Mode, 45 Master‘s by Coursework and 1 PhD by Research. The number of postgraduate programmes offered increased progressively as more faculties were involved. Figures 1 and 2 provide illustration of these increases.

Figure 1- No. of Postgraduate Programmes Offered in 2006 – 2014

Figure 2 - No. of Faculties/Institute Offering Postgraduate Programmes in 2006 - 2014

By end of 2014, a total of 24 Master‘s and 10 PhD programmes were offered. Tables 5.1 & 5.2 illustrate the number of Master‘s and PhD programmes offered by UTAR as of 31 December 2014, ranging from language, communication, business and finance, management, social science, information and communication technology, mathematics, science and engineering with 695 registered students, consisting of 529 Master‘s and 166 PhD students.

Table 1 - Master's programmes offered in UTAR as of 31 December 2014

Table 2 - PhD programmes offered in UTAR as of 31 December 2014

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 of 31 December 2014, UTAR recorded a total cumulative enrolment of 1464 postgraduate students.

Figures 3 – 4 provide comparative analysis on the enrolments from 2006 – 2014.

Figure 3 – Analysis of Enrolment of Postgraduate Students in 2006 – 2014

Figure 4 – Analysis of Enrolment According to Mode of Study in 2006 – 2014

As of 31 December 2014, 386 postgraduate students had graduated from various Master‘s and PhD programmes. Table 5.3 and Figure 5.5 provide the numbers and a comparison of students graduated from various postgraduate programmes.

Figure 5 – Comparison on Number of Postgraduate Students Graduated from Various Programmes in 2006 - 2014

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 2014.

Figure 6 - Analysis on the Appointment of External Examiners for Thesis Examination (for Postgraduate Programmes by Research) in 2014

Figure 7 – Analysis on the Appointment of External Examiners for Dissertation Examination (for Postgraduate Mixed Mode Programmes) in 2014