PUTRAJAYA: The Higher Education Ministry has dismissed allegations suggesting that the student intakes into public universities were marred with "quota" and "cable" (using insider connection) elements, which triggered an uproar among candidates who failed to secure a place or were not offered the course listed as their top choice.
Its director-general Datuk Professor Dr Husaini Omar said the selection of students into higher education institutions was based on meritocracy, using a combination of 90 per cent marks for academic and 10 per cent for curriculum.
He cited three main reasons why some applicants failed to secure a placement or were not offered the course they wanted.
Apart from the intense competition due to overwhelming number of top scorers to fill up limited places offered by 20 public universities, he also did not rule out the failure of almost half of the applicants to key in all 12 courses of their choice when they submitted the application via the Central University Admission Unit's online portal (UPUOnline).
He added that almost half or 53,704 applicants had keyed in all 12 choices of the course that they wished to enrol in when they submitted their application to UPUOnline.
"There is no such thing (as cable element exist in the selection of students). This is purely due to the high competition and the limited places offered at public higher education institutions.
"For this year, there are some 8,000 applicants who scored a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average. There were also many applicants who scored full curriculum marks," he told a media briefing today.
Also present is the ministry's Student Admission Division director Wahi Nordin.
Husaini said the UPUOnline received 115,477 applications from candidates who wanted to pursue their tertiary education at public universities for the 2022/2023 academic calendar.
He said 90,745 of these applicants were considered eligible after they met the general requirements before they were being vetted according to criteria fixed by the respective public universities.
He said 71,615 candidates, who submitted their applications using their Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) results and other equivalent examination qualifications received offers to pursue their tertiary education.
Medicine, accounting, law and engineering courses, he said, remained the top 10 most sought-after and competitive programmes among applicants.
"The UPUOnline had received 1,931 applications to pursue medicine as the first choice and 1,841 of these applicants were eligible (after going through the necessary vetting process, including interview).
"Based on the ministry's official projection, we initially could only offer 680 places for medical courses.
"Due to the overwhelming response, the ministry had instructed public higher education institutions to 'jack-up' (increase) the number of placements for medical courses to 692," he said, adding that the extra 12 places to do medicine were the maximum numbers that could be offered.
Husaini said this was because the number of placements for medical courses was being decided by the Malaysian Medical Council and the Health Ministry based on their projections as well as capabilities of the respective universities.
Husaini added that it would not be the end of the road for applicants who failed to secure a spot or was not offered the course that they wanted.
He said the candidates could also submit an appeal with the ministry via UPUOnline, or seek other alternatives such as pursuing the courses of their choice at private higher education institutions.
"Furthermore, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had announced that students who obtained first class bachelor's degree would be eligible for the National Higher Education Fund Corporation loan repayment exemption," he said.