Initially set up as a Graduate Study Unit in 1978, SGS then proceeded to become a fully functioning Graduate School Office (GSO) in February 1993, to serve the growing population of postgraduate students at UPM. In March 2002, it continued to flourish as it was officially renamed the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) and was established as a service centre which had a status equivalent to a faculty at the university. This entailed its bigger role in the co-ordination of all postgraduate programmes and activities at UPM.