UTAR President, Ir. Professor Dato' Dr. Chuah Hean Teik warmly welcomed UTAR alumni at the Inaugural Homecoming Celebrations held at UTAR Perak Campus on 5 September 2009. 

In his highly motivating speech, Professor Chuah briefed the alumni on the progress of their alma mater.  He shared several milestones achieved by the University within a short span of time. 

"The fact that UTAR witnesses continuous huge enrolment of students speaks volumes for our dynamic growth and development.  UTAR started with a student population of 411, staff strength of about 70 and eight Bachelor?s programmes in three faculties in Petaling Jaya in June 2002.  Fast forward, UTAR now, in its eighth year of operation, has over 18,000 students, staff strength of over 1,300 academic and administrative staff, and offers a comprehensive array of 76 programmes ranging from foundation to PhD level spread over nine faculties in four Campus locations.  In addition, UTAR currently has two Centres for Foundation Studies (one in PJ and another one in Kampar), a Centre for Extension Education and an Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research," enthused Professor Chuah.

"This beautiful Perak Campus, one of the highlights in UTAR history, started its operation in May 2007 with an intake of 500 Foundation students.  Within two years, the number has increased 17-fold to more than 8,700 students, currently studying in 26 programmes here.  To support the tremendous growth in student population, the infrastructure for teaching and research has been extended. This includes a five-storey library, an administrative building, lecture theatres, research labs and engineering workshops in the Phase 1B of the campus development which has just completed end of last month. 

Today, UTAR has seen 16,480 graduates passed through the University portal and currently contributing positively in different parts of the world.  I am especially encouraged to see that many of you have made great achievements and contributing positively to the development of our nation," he added.

Before ending his speech, Professor Chuah emphasized 3 appeals to the alumni:

"Firstly, we hope and trust that our alumni will share and believe in our University's aspirations and in our vision to be a premier university in this region and beyond.  We invite you to be engaged and involved in helping our university realize these aspirations by providing your feedback, observations, ideas, comments and suggestions.  You can channel these thoughts to me directly.

Secondly, having built your academic and personal excellence in UTAR, I am confident that you may want to share your successes and give something back to your alma mater that had nurtured you.  We hope our alumni could make sincere donations, regardless of the amount, which could enable our University to pursue excellence and contribute to future generations.  In fact, number of alumni donating is one of the key indicators used by international university ranking exercises.  Indeed, there are numerous ways that our alumni can support our University.  With your rich experience, you can contribute greatly to the educational experience of our students.  You can share your knowledge and experience with our students, and inspire them.  You can bring a real-world perspective to the academic pursuits of the students and faculty.  You can also contribute to university research and development as well as university entrepreneurial ventures. 

Last but not least, we hope that you would remain connected to your alma mater.  We hope to see you come home every year for this annual reunion.  Your continued participation and support will help the rest of us in the UTAR community fulfil the University's aspiration and educational mission."