An independent scholar has agreed with a former deputy higher education minister’s proposal to increase the weightage for co-curricular activities to 30% when it comes to admissions into local universities.
Currently, evaluation is based on academic performance, which carries 90% weightage, with extracurricular activities accounting for only 10%.
Sharifah Munirah Alatas, a former assistant professor, said co-curricular activities help university admission officers gauge the “qualitative skills” of the applicant, including leadership, discipline, communications, teamwork, and time management.
Students who take part in school club activities, volunteer work, and sports reveal their level of commitment, discipline, determination, perseverance, and “staying power”, she said.
“Activities outside the classroom help admission officers to get a complete picture of a student’s academic level, identity and personality.
“University admissions should seek depth, character, and a proven commitment to their daily lives. This is really why co-curricular activities should be weighted more than 10%,” she told FMT.
On Sunday, Saifuddin Abdullah said he had previously proposed for the weightage for co-curricular activities to be increased to 30%, when defending the centralised Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) admission process.
The UPU recently came under the spotlight after an STPM top-scorer failed to secure a spot in accountancy at a public university.
Munirah said increasing the weightage on co-curricular activities did not mean that a long list was needed to boost an application that has low grades.
“The admissions criteria must not resort to embracing a packed resume, but instead consider a more focused passion and leadership personality,” she said.
She said any move to increase the weightage on co-curricular activities must consider a few matters, including the need to nurture a ”jack of all trades, master of none” value system in education.
She wondered if it would be better to allow students who have decided to pursue what they are truly good at and passionate about, even if it meant that they only took one co-curricular activity.
“For example, shouldn’t a star secondary school athlete who has the potential to represent the country in the SEA Games or Asian Games, or at any other regional or world class platform, be given public university admission with a scholarship, regardless of ethnicity, as long as they fulfil the 70%:30% admissions ratio?” she said.
