The press specialises in books and journals that deal with topics on the social sciences and humanities in Asia.

The Publishing Committee operated with the assistance of the Oxford University Press, which carried out editing and other back-end work for academic articles the Committee sent to the press for publishing.

[citation needed] The committee comprised the university's vice chancellor as its chairman, a librarian, representatives from the University Council and Senate, the Education Ministry, and a representative from the OUP.

[3] In 1959, the University of Malaya split into two autonomous units, with one division in Kuala Lumpur and the other in Singapore.

Despite the split, the two national universities continued to share a publishing arm.