MCA president Wee Ka Siong has criticised Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor Noor Azuan Abu Osman’s defence of the university’s direct intake channel, saying it overlooks growing concerns about public university admissions.
Noor Azuan recently said the direct intake channel helps internationalise UM, enhance research visibility and maintain university rankings, while claiming that top local students were still securing places.
However, Wee said the real problem is that full fee-paying places are expanding while subsidised Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) slots are being reduced.
He highlighted UM’s Mega Open Day, where 75 places for the Bachelor of Laws degree were offered under the direct intake channel at fees 10 times higher than UPU rates.
“The issue is clear: subsidised UPU seats are being restricted while public universities expand commercial channels to full-paying students,” he said.
Wee also called out claims that all 1,255 STPM students with a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average (CGPA) were successfully placed, noting that most of them were not offered their preferred courses.
“Securing ‘a place’ for these perfect-scoring STPM graduates is not the same as being offered one’s course of choice.
“This shouldn’t even be an issue considering the number of places made available to full fee-paying locals and foreigners.”
He reiterated his call to UM and the higher education ministry to publish detailed yearly data from 2018 to 2025, showing the breakdown between full fee-paying and subsidised local students by qualification.
“Only then can Malaysians see the truth — that thousands of deserving students are being forced into commercial ‘direct intake’ programmes,” he added.
The controversy began when a top STPM scorer from Penang failed to get a place in Universiti Malaya’s accountancy course under the government’s UPU pathway.
Edward Wong, 20, from SMJK Jit Sin in Bukit Mertajam, recorded a perfect 4.0 CGPA in his STPM examination and even scored 99.9% for co-curricular activities.
However, he was not offered accountancy courses in any of his top picks and was instead given a place to pursue a management course at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology have since expressed their willingness to offer Wong a full scholarship.
