MCA president Wee Ka Siong has questioned the fairness of public university admissions after a top student failed to get a place in Universiti Malaya’s accountancy course under the government’s Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) pathway.
Edward Wong, 20, from SMJK Jit Sin in Bukit Mertajam, recorded a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average (CGPA) in his Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) examination and even scored 99.9% for co-curricular activities.
However, he was not offered accountancy courses at public universities, with UM being his top choice, and was instead given a place to pursue a management course at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
During a press conference that was streamed online, Wee said Wong’s predicament showcased the serious flaws in the centralised UPU admission process.
Through the UPU intake, students would be able to enjoy heavily subsidised tuition fees as they further their studies in public universities.
“How good are our students supposed to be? Edward had four flat and nearly perfect co-curricular marks, yet he could not get into accountancy at UM,” said the former minister.
He said Wong then tried applying for the same course in UM via its open channel intake and he was accepted almost immediately.
Nonetheless, his tuition fees would reach RM83,800. It would have been about RM8,300 had he been admitted via UPU.
“How can a student be deemed ineligible through UPU but fully eligible through an open channel that charges 10 times more? This raises questions of fairness and transparency,” said Wee.
Wong said the rejection was crushing after years of hard work, adding that he “gave everything” in the past two years studying for his STPM.
“I sacrificed my time and energy and endured doubt and stress. I proved I could achieve great results with a CGPA of 4.0 and 99.9% co-curricular marks. Yet, I was still denied my dream course.
“How excellent must we be to earn the right to choose? Are our efforts not valued?” he said.
Wee said MCA’s education bureau also received complaints of other students who managed to get a place in public universities through UPU but were later told to pay the full fees from the second year onwards.
He asked the higher education ministry and UM to explain the situation and ensure that excellent students were not sidelined.
Wee warned that, if this situation was allowed to go on, stellar students like Wong would be poached by Singapore and other neighbouring countries, causing a major brain drain.
“Public universities are funded by the people. They must give opportunities to the best students and to those from less wealthy families. Otherwise, we are shutting the door on social mobility.”
Previously, MCA said the availability of UM’s two parallel pathways — UPU and the “Satu” open channel — only served to reinforce inequality as lower-income students could only apply via UPU, while those with more funds could afford Satu’s higher fees.
