1956年，南洋大學在新加坡裕廊校區正式開學，終於實現了馬來亞華人創辦華文大學的美夢。然而，當新加坡於1965年8月9日正式脫離馬來西亞聯合邦之後，對馬來西亞的華人而言，南洋大學成為「外國」的學校，當馬來西亞教育部宣布將限制出國留學的資格後，馬來西亞的華人，決定創辦一所「自己的」大學。這所被命名為「獨立」的大學，是馬來西亞華人努力爭取卻未能成功設立的大學，是馬來西亞華文教育運動史上一項影響深遠的事件，本論文將以馬來西亞成立後執政當局之教育政策的演變為背景，討論獨立大學的創議過程與結果。

When Nanyang University was founded at Jurong, Singapore in 1956, it seemed that the Chinese people in Malaya had made their dream to establish a Chinese university come true. When Singapore separated from Federation of Malaysia in 1965, Nanyang University became a “foreign” university. When the Ministry of Education of Malaysia announced to put restrictions on studying abroad, the Malaysian Chinese thus wanted to have their own university. This proposed university was called Merdeka University. The project had never been materialized. Nonetheless, the proposed project had great impact on the development of Chinese education in Malaysia. In this paper, I try to make an inquiry into the emergence, process and effect of the Merdeka University.