The establishment of a university in Kelantan was made as a component in the Ninth Malaysia Plan to support the quality of human capital development in the higher education sector. The federal agreement was announced by the Prime Minister on the 31 March 2006 in the Ninth Malaysia Plan proposal.
The establishment of the university was approved in the Cabinet Meeting on 14 June 2006. The cabinet has specified that the philosophy of the curriculum in UMK should be based on entrepreneurship and enterprise education in all the study programmes. Therefore, taglines such as "Entrepreneurship is Our Thrust" and "Entrepreneurial University" are widely used to promote the philosophy of this university. Specialised studies for short and moderate term are grouped into three main fields of studies, namely:
1. Entrepreneurship and Business;
2. Creative Technology and Heritage;
3. Agro-Based Industry and Earth Sciences
Apart from the three fields of studies, the significant emphasis would be given to acquiring languages and the development of soft skills. These learning programmes aim is to produce high-quality human capital with a first- class mentality and exemplary entrepreneurship attributes. It is hoped that this would contribute to the global prosperity by improving the capability and capacity of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), and also towards the development of a highly entrepreneurial commercial society. In line with all areas of study, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is employed as an enabler.