Universiti Utara Malaysia was established to primarily develop and promote management education in the country. Its academic programmes are especially geared towards providing a broad spectrum of academic knowledge and intellectual skills in the area of management, accounting, economics, information technology, public administration, human resource management, entrepreneurship, finance and banking, law, marketing, management of technology, communication, social work, multimedia, education, decision science, international affairs, business management, tourism, muamalat administration, development management, logistics and transportation, hospitality, risk and insurance management, media technology, agribusiness management science, business mathematics, industrial statistics and counseling. Universiti Utara Malaysia also acts as a catalyst for socio-economic development in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. It is envisaged that the University's basic infrastructure, state-of-the-art facilities and international pool of human resources will provide the much needed impetus to develop and sustain most, if not all socio-economic activities in the region.

In addition to its core business of providing quality teaching, conducting extensive research, and promoting a culture of scholarly publications, the University will contribute to the social, economic and intellectual development of communities beyond the campus. The University has a crucial role to play when engaging the surrounding local communities in community-based projects, in developing or strengthening community-university partnerships through collaboration with other government agencies and/or the private sector.

The University's objectives are aptly embodied in the following three major thrusts:

• To be the centre of excellence for management education.
• To be the leading referral centre in all aspects of management scholarship and practice.
• To be the premier resource centre in the field of management studies.