MCA and MIC point to lower number of Chinese and Indians
(The Star) – Students with CGPA of 4.0 should not be given courses which they had not opted for, as they are a talented group. If these students with excellent results fail to get the course that they want, they might just take up offers from other countries like Singapore.
MCA has questioned the record low intake of Chinese students for public universities this year, saying there were top scorers who were also not offered courses they had chosen.
Its education bureau chairman Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong revealed that Chinese students formed a mere 19% of the 41,573 successful applicants for the new academic term.
He said it was unacceptable and unfair for some students with cumulative grade point averages (CGPA) of 4.0 to not get places in the universities.
“The hardest hit are students with CGPA of 4.0 who applied for medicine, pharmacy and dentistry and were yet not offered any place or given any course in the eight options applied for,” Dr Wee told a press conference at Wisma MCA here yesterday.
During the IPTA application process, students are required to fill in eight options and must also state whether they would accept offers outside their eight choices.
Dr Wee, who is also MCA Youth chief, pointed out that the enrolment of Chinese students in institutions of higher learning (IPTAs) since the implementation of the meritocracy policy in 2002 had always been above 25%.
“Even within the 19%, there are many students who are unhappy with their offers,’’ he added.
Of the seven complaints that MCA had received since Thursday, Dr Wee said all seven students had a CGPA of 4.0 and had not been given a course of study within their chosen options.
“Students with CGPA of 4.0 should not be given courses which they had not opted for, as they are a talented group. If these students with excellent results fail to get the course that they want, they might just take up offers from other countries like Singapore,” said Dr Wee.
He urged the Government to make the selection process for the IPTA student intake transparent and to ensure that students with a CGPA of 4.0 be offered courses of their choice.
MIC Youth Higher Education Bureau chief Mahaganapathy Dass said the party had complaints from 10 students, who had scored a CGPA of 4.0, who had not been offered any course of study.
“This is demotivating to students, especially those who see education as a way out of their family’s socio-economic situation,’’ he told reporters at the MIC headquarters here.
He also questioned the decrease in the number of students offered places at Universiti Malaya’s Indian Studies Department to just seven this year, from 13 in 2012.
On Thursday, Higher Education Department director-general Prof Datuk Dr Morshidi Sirat said that 41,573 students were offered places in the 20 public universities for the 2013/14 academic term.
