The plan to establish the Faculty of Engineering had started back in 1978 with the formation of the Electronic Unit and the Industrial Chemistry Unit under the flagship of the Faculty of Science on 1st May 1978. Both units offered programmes linked to engineering in nature to science students at the undergraduate level. In 1980, the Industrial Chemistry Unit was renamed to the Chemistry Technology Unit which offered the Chemistry Technology Programme.

As a result of the restructuring of the Faculty of Science in 1982 which in turn formed the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences, both units were upgraded to deparments under this new faculty. Then, both units combined toether to form the Faculty of Engineering on 1st November 1984 and were renamed to the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering and the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, respectively. Later on 1st January 1985, two other departments, namely the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, were established. During these periods, the Faculty of Engineering operated the Bachelor of Engineering degree programmes and the masters and doctorate programmes using spaces allocated in the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences, which are in the Chemistry, Physics and Geology Buildings.

The Faculty of Engineering was then moved into its own building on a 250,936 ft. sq. site in November 1993. The cost of the building was RM41 million including RM10 million assistance from the World Bank. Then, in the period of 1998-2002, a teaching block, a research block and four laboratory blocks were added to complement the Faculty infrasturcture. In 1995, the Advanced Engineering Centre was established to handle engineering consultancy and industrial relation projects. It is then restructured in 2000 to focus specifically to research management and industrial relationship.

After 8 years in operation with four departments, the year 2002 marks the formation of the Department of Architecture as the fifth department which offered architectural based programmes. To complete the full structure, the Unit of Basic Enginneering Studies was formed in 2005 to specifically handle common mathematic courses as well as generic related courses such as communications and critical thinking.