The name of Brawijaya was granted by the president of the Republic of Indonesia through a wire sent on 11 July 1961. This name is derived from the title of kings of
Majapahit, a great kingdom in Indonesia from the twelfth to fifteenth century. The University of Brawijaya transformed into a state university on 5 January 1963, following a presidential decree issued earlier in the same year. This date was later promulgated as University of Brawijaya's anniversary (especially called Dies Natalies among Indonesian academic society members). Before its transformation into a state university in 1967, University of Brawijaya had started its operation in 1957 in Malang, as a branch of the University of Sawerigading
Makassar. In those days, this Malang branch had two faculties: Law and Economics. Then, on 1 July 1960, its name was changed to the Municipal University of Malang. Under the new name, two more faculties were established a few months later: Administration Sciences and Agriculture. At the time of its transformation into a state university, University of Brawijaya had five faculties: Law, Economics, State Governance and Trade Management (an extension of the Faculty of Trade Administration now called the Faculty of Administrative Science), Agriculture, and Veterinary and Animal Husbandry. In 1973, the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry was then divided into the Faculty of Animal Husbandry and the Faculty of Veterinary, which were under
Airlangga University. The Faculty of Engineering was established in 1963 based on a decree form the Ministry of Universities and Education Science in the same year. In 1982, due to a change in University of Brawijaya's organizational structure, the Faculty of Fishery became a separate faculty (since 1977, it had been under the Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Fishery, which was later called the Faculty of Animal Husbandry). Before this date, the Faculty of Fishery had operated since 1963, in
Probolinggo, a town about three hours to the northeast from Malang, as a department under University of Brawijaya's Faculty of Veterinary and Agriculture of University of Brawijaya. The Faculty of Medicine has officially been under University of Brawijaya since 1974. Since its establishment, it had been under the Foundation of Higher Education of East Java. The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences was inaugurated following a decree from the Ministry of Education and Culture dated October 21, 1993. The University of Brawijaya added one more faculty: the Faculty of Agricultural Technology, which was upgraded from the Department of Agricultural Technology, which had been under the Faculty of Agriculture. The hymn of University of Brawijaya was composed by a student of the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry called Yanardhana in 1963, while the march of University of Brawijaya was composed by Lilik Sugiarto in 1996. Both songs are still frequently sung. ==Faculties and School==