Unfair university intake is not only causing heartaches to students and parents, it is also a cause of national disunity and brain drain

Media Statement by M Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat in Ipoh on Sunday, August 4, 2013

Unfair university intake is not only causing heartaches to students and parents, it is also a cause of national disunity and brain drain.

Two days ago, the Star reported that a spokesman from the Education Ministry said that the 39 students with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 4.0 did not gain a place in public universities because the courses were already full and some did not meet the requirements.

It also reported the ministry spokesman as saying the students had also indicated that they would not accept courses that were not in their option. Among the popular courses were medicine and dentistry.
The spokesman added that the 39 students could have failed in their interviews or didn't score well in extra-curricular activities.

Such explanations, which are not satisfactory, do not come as a surprise as they have always been used to explain the perennial problem of top scorers’ failure to secure any place or their preferred courses at public universities.

Why can’t the Ministry understand and accept the public sentiment about and demand on the perennial problem?

The Ministry must understand that the two most important issues about the university intake are unfairness and lack of transparency.

At a forum held last month, I had said the following about the perennial problem:-

“ The two usual explanations given by the authorities and government are firstly, there are too many applicants for limited places and secondly, some students have lost out due to their lower marks in their extracurricular activities.

However, such explanations are hardly convincing and acceptable as there have been public allegations that students with lower scores in CGPA and extracurricular activities have been offered courses at public universities.”

So how could the Ministry expect the public to accept its perennial “standard explanations”?

Unfair university intake is not only causing heartaches to students and parents, it is also a cause of national disunity and brain drain.

Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin should accept the fact that on the issue of intake into public universities, the Ministry has lost much public credibility and confidence.

The only way to regain public confidence is to address the issues of public complaints- unfairness and lack of transparency.

I therefore call on the Education Ministry to carry out the following steps:

1.     publish the qualifying marks for all university programmes and the marks obtained by the 36 top students in all the criteria, viz academic results, extracurricular activities and interview performance. 

2.     allow an ad hoc bipartisan committee comprising Members of Parliament from both government and opposition to vet the recent allocation of university placement and decisions going to be made on the appeals submitted.