DISTED College

DISTED College, Macalister Road, Penang (18 February 2013)

DISTED College (GPS: 5.4236, 100.30763) is the first private college in Penang. Presently located on Macalister Road, it was founded by Tan Sri Emeritus Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan, Dr Hulman Sinaga and Dato' Dr Sharom Ahmat in 1985 to provide an opportunity for adults who did not get into universities to obtain higher education. The name DISTED is a portmanteau of "Distance Education", as it is a college created to be a link with overseas tertiary institution.

Disted College came into being in August 1985, as DISTED Services Sdn Bhd. Two years later, it signed up four institutions to be its distance partners. They were the British Columbia Open University in Canada and three Australian institutions namely Adelaide College of TAFE, Murdoch University and the Warrnambool Institue of Advanced Education, now part of Deakin University.

Within two years of its founding, it became apparent that the laudable intention of providing education to adults will not be realised, as the cost of obtaining a degree came up to whopping RM30,000, a figure that many working adults could ill afford. It forced Disted to undergo a metamorphosis, reorienting itself towards being a private college for students progressing from secondary schools towards tertiary institution.

DISTED College library (18 February 2013)

The initial campus of Disted College was a bungalow on Hargreaves Road. It housed the initial intake of students in 1987. Then for two short years, Disted moved to RECSAM in Gelugor. As the RECSAM location is not big enough, it moved again, to occupy the facilities of the Uplands International School at St Joseph's Novitiate. Those premises are today part of Gurney Paragon Mall.

Five years after occupying St Joseph's Novitiate, Disted College once again ran out of space, and so the search began once more to look for larger premises. Then Disted's deputy CEO at that time, Dato' Saleena Yahaya Isa (neé Christina Lee Kooi Jong), working tirelessly, managed to engage the involvement of the Yeap Chor Ee Charitable Trust. The relationship, which continues to this day, opens the college to the privilege of using properties of the late Penang tycoon Yeap Chor Ee for educational purposes.

In 1995, Disted College moved into its permanent location at the Yeap Chor Ee Campus at 340 Macalister Road. Two years later it expanded to 5.5 acres when it acquired the adjacent property. This property, a historic building, now houses the Disted Library.

From 1999 to 2009, Disted College merged with Stamford College, and was known as DISTED-Stamford Collage. Due to differences in shareholder orientation, the merger was dissolved in 2009, as Disted College reverted to its original name.

Today Disted College occupies three campuses in Penang, with one more under construction. They are:

DISTED Yeap Chor Ee Campus