Initially established as Text Preparatory Bureau (BIROTEKS) on 10^th January 1981, the publication arm began its services very humbly-understaffed and with a total quantity of lower than 10 publication materials to process, as writing was not Institut Teknologi MARA’s forte at that time.

Over time, the bureau went through significant changes with the formation of the UiTM Consolidation Strategy, changing its name to Academic Publication Unit or as it is fondly remembered and called, UPENA (it’s a Malay acronym for Unit Penerbitan Akademik. Even today most UiTM staff still calls the press by this name!). It remained a unit for not more than five months when a former vice-chancellor gave a directive for the unit to be upgraded, from a unit to a centre. Albeit the change, UPENA remained as its name.

The objectives were to: encourage the UiTM academic fraternity to write scholarly materials as teaching and learning references at the institution; champion the Malay language as the language of knowledge; stimulate the publication of academic materials such as books, journals, proceedings, monographs and manual; particularly those which written by the institution’s academics. It was a prerequisite for the university’s academic staff to be considered for a promotion, as writing was not a popular practice amongst them- a method to instil a love for spreading knowledge; now it has become a widespread culture across the university’s nationwide campuses.

Following this, UiTM Executive Committee No. 21/2011 has agreed that effective 15^th November 2011, the University Publication Centre is to be renamed UiTM Press, publishing intellectual and creative ideas of Universiti Teknologi MARA’s staff, be them academic or non-academic, to share and disseminate knowledge throughout the university and the society at large. The press is responsible to encourage and assist the UiTM community to be active in academic authorship, by providing support and consultancy as well as selling all of its publications through its editorial, administrative and sales and marketing units.

Today, UiTM Press also publishes books of the general genre without losing its scholarly elements to cater for all readers out there. This is because the publication arm no longer focuses on producing textbooks for UiTM students alone, but also for students of other institutions of higher learning and for the society at large. Other than the UiTM fraternity, the Press also welcomes anyone from anywhere to unleash their writing prowess and publish their literary works.

To date, UiTM Press has published over 1000 thousand titles, with few having won prestigious local academic publication awards. This is the fruits of labour under the leadership of its charismatic directors, from then to now, as listed below:

Previous Directors