The Establishment of UTAR began with the story of Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman (KTAR). In 1964 the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) mooted the idea of setting up a college which was subsequently named after the first Prime Minister of Malaysia. On 15 September 1972, Dato' Hussein Onn, the then Minister of Education handed over the Instrument of Government to the College. A 191-acre piece of land in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur was allocated for the construction of the KTAR Campus. The establishment of KTAR subsequently provided the impetus and inspiration to establish a new private university. The proposal of establishing a new private university was then met with approval from the Government.