Our School of the Arts was a constituent of the Humanities Department. In 1999, the winds of change had taken place, we gained the full-fledge status as an independent entity within the whole set up of Universiti Sains Malaysia. This mandate, on its own accord, posed a challenge in charting our own direction. As the result, to date, we have been conducting our own courses and awarded graduate and post-graduate degrees. All that we do are focussed on imparting knowledge, nurturing talent and developing skill about art, design, media, music and performance with cross-disciplinary approach.

The distance we travel thus far is very much linked to our lecturers and supporting staff. They are an integral part of all that we have achieved for they bring with them extensive practice background and industrial exposure. As such, they help reinforce professional relationship and consequently, they link the School with the reality of the industry. This has enabled us to consistently ensure our courses are kept updated. The core of our aspiration is to achieve the level of excellence whereby our students will be able to think critically and at the same time, they are capable of applying their knowledge and skill across a wider range of the creative disciplines as true professionals.

Taking this into consideration, we have vigorously worked to mould our students to be the moving force of change in the ever progressing creative world, especially in this time of rapid convergence of technology and time-based media.