Its teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC), is located in Cheras and also has a branch campus in Kuala Lumpur.

A Sponsoring Committee chaired by Syed Nasir Ismail, a Malay intellectual, was set up to prepare a report recommending the establishment of UKM.

It was modified to its present form by publications officer Zulkifli Ibrahim, which was launched on 29 July 2000 in conjunction with the university's 30th anniversary, with stripes added to the tiger's body.

[7][8] The arms is depicted as a quartered shield featuring an atomic symbol, a compass, a gear, a Malayan tiger and the national flower, Bunga Raya, or hibiscus rosa-sinensis, with an overlaid book placed on top of it.

[9] It is blazoned: The first coat of arms of the university designed by the First Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, was different from the present one.

The Malay name (UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA) is big and presented in upper case, with the letters U, K and M bigger than the rest.

The UKM Strategic Centre deputy executive director Associate, Professor Dr. Masturah Markom, responded by saying that the rankings were unfair to the Malaysian educational context.