Formerly it was named Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (Agricultural University of Malaysia), focusing on agricultural sciences and related fields. Since the 1990s, the fields of study have expanded to include human ecology, languages, architecture, medicine, computer science and biotechnology. 

Currently, the school has 16 faculties with many different specialties. Faculties include: Agriculture, forestry, veterinary medicine, economics and management, engineering, education, food science and technology, human ecology, modern languages and media, design and architecture, medicine and health sciences, computer science and information technology, biotechnology and molecular biology, environmental studies, agricultural and food sciences.

Currently, UPM has more than 26,000 students studying, including 2,700 international students, most of them from other Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, China, India, Indonesia, etc.

The university is currently ranked 123rd in the world, 27th among Asian universities, and the 2nd best university in Malaysia in the 2023 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking. On the Edurank site, the school is ranked 9th in Asia for Agricultural Engineering and 15th in the world for Food and Nutritional Sciences.

According to Wikipedia and upm.edu.my