'Scrap matriculation, use only STPM as benchmark for varsity entry'

 

Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) urged the government to abolish the matriculation system and use STPM results as the sole benchmark for entry into public universities.

Its president Tang Yi Ze justified his calls by saying that STPM’s syllabus is proven to be better as it is more challenging and recognised in the international arena.

Tang said Umany had approached the Higher Education Ministry on the injustice that exists within the centralised public university admissions system (UPU).

“A student who had a CGPA of 4.0, in addition to 9.45 in extracurricular marks, was only offered his eighth choice (of university course) under the UPU, while his top three choices were not even considered.

“We stress that the STPM syllabus is more challenging and stricter compared to the matriculation programme. It is also recognised internationally.

“Yet, STPM leavers have to compete with a large number of matriculation students on the same platform, which results in a structural injustice.

“This is a form of systemic sidelining of STPM leavers,” Tang said after submitting a complaint to the Higher Education Ministry’s assistant public relations officer Dayang Norakma Shaharuddin in Putrajaya today.

The media previously reported on the plight faced by Edward Wong, who scored a 4.0 CGPA in the examination and aspired to be an accountant, only to be rejected by six universities.

Edward Wong

Umany later raised concerns over how Wong was initially offered admission to Universiti Malaya, but only through its controversial direct intake system “Satu”, which costs “up to 10 times higher.”

Umany stressed that since Wong received the direct intake offer prior to the release of his UPU results, this proved that he did indeed meet the entry requirements for the programme.

It also called on the Higher Education Ministry to immediately publish the minimum entry scores, the ratio of UPU to direct intake students, and the ethnic breakdown for all universities and all programmes this year.

Full disclosure

Tang said today that the group is also urging the ministry to fully disclose the mechanisms and data used to distribute courses under the UPU system for each intake session.

He said such a disclosure is important to ensure that every prospective student can clearly understand why they were offered certain courses.

“The ministry must transparently announce all data and methods used to determine student rankings under the UPU system, including the number of quotas for popular courses such as medicine, accounting, and law.

“They must also reveal the detailed quota breakdown by entry streams such as STPM, matriculation, foundation, diploma, and A-Levels. Such transparency is crucial so that the public can play its role as a check and balance to the ministry’s decisions,” he said.

Additionally, Umany expressed hope that these calls and demands would ensure that admissions into public universities are truly merit-based, thereby guaranteeing fairness and transparency. - Mkini