Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Perak Darul Ridzuan has a long distinguished history beginning with its establishment in 1922 as the Sultan Idris Training College (SITC). Designed to provide teacher tarining and education to only the highest achieving Malay students in pre-independent Malaya, the college,  which was the brainchild of the then Deputy Director of Malay schools, Sir Richard Windstedt, grew in strength and was widely known in the region for its scholarly tradition. Not surprisingly, the college produced the best of Malay educators, linguists, writers and journalists. In 1957, when Malaysia gained its independence, the college was renamed Maktab Perguruan Sultan Idris (MPSI), which later grew to become the Institut Perguruan Sultan Idris (IPSI). On the 1st May 1997, the Minister of Education announced the establishment of the first university of education in the country, to be named the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris.

The university has since established itself as a niche centre for excellence in education. Recognized as a university with a high research profile and excellent teaching standards, UPSI can proudly claim to have that particular advantage of offering high calibre teaching of a wide choice of academic subjects and combinations of subjects in the broad area of education. To provide a supportive teaching and research environment, UPSI has established the following institutes and centres:

1.   Institute for Malay Civilisation

2.   University Publisher

3.   Centre for Corriculum

4.   Research Management Centre

5.   ICT Centre

6.   Institutes of Graduate Studies

7.   Centre for Quality Assurance

8.   Centre for Educational Technology and Multimedia

9.   Centre for Human Excellence

10. Aminuddin Baki Centre for Global Studies

11. Centre for International Relations

12. National Child Development Research Centre

To assure itself of the reputation of a truly modern university, UPSI is constantly in the process of reappraising and improving its academic and research standards in order to meet the growing demands of a changing student population and a more challenging world.