MCA president Wee Ka Siong today challenged the higher education department’s (JPT) figure of 85 available seats in Universiti Malaya’s (UM) accounting programme this year.
Citing UM’s convocation data, Wee said nearly 200 students had graduated from the course annually between 2011 and 2024.
“Why does the data from JPT, the department that oversees all universities, say that only 85 places were offered when the (university’s) records show a much larger number of graduates?” he asked at a press conference.
“If UM really only takes in 85 students per year, then over four years, that’s just 340 accountancy undergraduates at any given time. But UM’s total enrolment is 43,000 students.”
JPT said yesterday that STPM top scorer Edward Wong was ranked 1,129th among 2,291 eligible applicants for UM, while only 85 places for accountancy were available at his top choice university this year.
It said Wong was instead offered a place in a management course at Universiti Sains Malaysia, his fifth choice.
Wong, who scored a perfect 4.0 CGPA and 99.9% in co-curricular activities, had failed to secure a place in UM’s accountancy course under the Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) pathway.
Wee reiterated that Wong received a conditional offer letter for the same programme through UM’s open entry channel, but at a higher fee of RM83,800.
“So under UPU, he is ‘not good enough’, but under open entry, as long as he pays 10 times more, suddenly he is ‘good enough’? Who decided this? Who fixed this number of 85?” he asked.
“And if you tell us it’s 85 seats, and I can prove to you that it’s not 85 seats, tell me where the other seats went.”
Wee called for a full review of the university intake process and transparency on how seats are allocated.
“We must know. This is a procedure that must be reviewed. Are these places being traded away? This is the root issue that must be answered,” he said.
‘Why should I apologise?’
Separately, Wee dismissed Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh’s call for him to apologise to the higher education ministry for his remarks on the case.
“After listening to my explanation, on what basis must I apologise? Come on, man. They are telling us there were only 85 places, but I can show them it’s in the hundreds,” he said.
Wee said he was also puzzled as to why Akmal had not contacted him directly before making his statement.
“I’m not attacking him, I’m just highlighting one case,” he said.
