MIC leader disputes figures provided by Higher Education Ministry on allocation of places in varsities for the community.
PETALING JAYA: The new 2011 local universities admissions list released recently has once again riled the Indian community over allocations of places for its students.
According to a Higher Education Ministry source, out of the total 41,267 seats allocated nationwide in local universities, only 1,511 or for just 2.6% had been given to Indian students.
Talking on condition of anonymity, a veteran MIC leader said according to the ministry, there were 64,073 applications submitted to the Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) for various courses.
“There were 39,998 applications from Malays, 10,677 Chinese, 1,813 Indians and 728 for others. That’s a total of 53,216,” he said.
He, however, disputed the figures. “How come the such a low figure for Indians when almost 20,000 finish their SPM and STPM yearly?” he asked.
“And what about the remaining 10, 857 places unaccounted for from the official figure?
“What happened to the election pledge made by Umno and MIC in 2008 to increase the intake of Indian pupils in local universities to 7.5% or 3,300 seats?”
He criticised Higher Education Minister Mohd Khaled Nordin for not being sensitive to Indian students’ aspirations to pursue critical courses.
According to him, there were only 50 seats awarded to Indian students out of the total 1,000 seats for medical courses.
“Four seats were given in dentistry, seven in pharmacy and 37 for mathematics courses and out of the 3,500 engineering admissions, only 83 were allocated to Indians.”
“Who will take the responsiblity for this?” he asked, adding that prime minister Najib Tun Razak and MIC president G Palanivel must clear the air at the party’s AGM over the weekend.
Tamil studies courses
Meanwhile, in a related development, another MIC leader urged the higher education ministry to explain the seat allocation to Indian students in Universiti Malaya.
E Segaran, the Petaling Jaya Selatan MIC division information chief, said only 20 seats were given to the Indian students for the courses related to Tamil studies.
Segaran claimed the ministry had deliberately denied places to 280 students who qualified to pursue courses of their choice.
“This is clear cut discrimination against the Indian community,” he told FMT.
Segaran added that by keeping to a minimum the intake of students for Tamil related courses, there will be dearth of graduate teachers in vernacular schools.
He said it was strange that while the education ministry was urging more Indian students to take Tamil related studies to fill shortage of teachers in Tamil school, the higher education ministry is denying them places for such studies.
According to him the Tamil courses in UM is highly sought after by the Indian students.
“So is there a problem with higher education ministry to grant more seats?” he asked. “I’ve already raised this issue at the recent Selangor MIC AGM.
“I sincerely hope prime minister Najib Tun Razak will intervene and help address the problem and resolve it soon,” said Segaran.
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