Ungku Omar Polytechnic was established in 1969 by the Malaysian Ministry of Education, assisted by UNESCO. UNESCO was tasked with the responsibility of planning and implementing the construction of a polytechnic on an area of 22.6 hectares in Dairy Road, Ipoh. The polytechnic was named after the late Professor Dato' Ungku Omar Ahmad, in recognition of his valuable contribution to the country, especially in the field of medical research.

Initially, this polytechnic was located in the Daily Training Center (DTC), an Ipoh building that later became known as the Kinta Teacher Training College. For the first group of 300 students, lectures were held from 2 June 1969. At that time, the academic workforce consisted of 28 local lecturers, assisted by 14 volunteers from Canada, the United States, Germany and Japan. Towards the end of 1973, the polytechnic moved to its new campus and was inaugurated on 10 May 1974 by the then Minister of Education, the late Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein.

At the initial stage, the polytechnic only had four academic departments, namely the Department of Civil Engineering, the Department of Electrical Engineering, the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Commerce, which offered various academic programs at the diploma and certificate levels. In 1972, the Department of Marine Engineering was formed and the department offered only one academic program at the diploma level. On March 1, 1999, two academic units were upgraded as departments. The Mathematics and Science Unit was upgraded as the Mathematics, Science and Computer Department. The Language and Religion Unit was upgraded as a General Studies Department.

In January 1999, the Information Technology Program was offered for the first time under the Department of Electrical Engineering. In July 1999, coordination of the Information Technology Program was taken over by the Department of Mathematics, Science and Computers. In January 2007, the Department of Information and Communication Technology began coordinating the Information Technology Program.

By the end of 2007, Ungku Omar Polytechnic had produced a total of 50,822 graduates. Currently, many of our former students are serving in various sectors of the economy, contributing their skills and talents to the nation-building process. This is made possible by our academic and non-academic staff workforce, which currently numbers 790 people.

On September 1, 1999, Kinta Teachers College handed over its campus to Ungku Omar Polytechnic. Now, this campus is known as Campus B and houses the Department of Commerce, Department of General Studies, Co-Curriculum Unit and Examination Unit. The expansion of the campus area is very important to meet the increasing student intake. It is expected that the number of students at Ungku Omar Polytechnic will reach 10,000 in the near future.

reference source: www.puo.edu.my