Singapore Straits Times 1st May 2001

The government knows not giving places for top non-bumi students in universities is a political hot potato and it has to find a solution

By Leslie Lau IN KUALA LUMPUR

IT IS a case of too many top Chinese students chasing too few university places in Malaysia.

And, mindful of the political minefield surrounding education issues, the government has said it will try to accommodate students it had earlier rejected for places in public universities here.

Malaysian Deputy Education Minister Datuk Hon Choon Kim told The Straits Times that the government felt top achievers should be given places to study and would try to work out a solution.

Education Ministry statistics showed that 560 top scorers in the SPM examinations, the equivalent of O levels in Malaysia, failed to get university places this year.

All the students rejected were Chinese. This has led to growing discontent in the community and increasing political pressure on the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) to solve the problem.'We will try to offer them a place but the trouble is that most of them want the most competitive courses,' said Datuk Hon.

Public universities here offer a limited number of places for courses such as engineering to SPM holders.

The minimal qualification for most other degree courses is a pass in the STPM examinations, the equivalent of the A Levels in Malaysia.Many students prefer the shortcut route to university by not taking the STPM, which takes up to two years to complete.

'Most of these students want to take up engineering courses but it is so competitive that even bumiputra students are being rejected,' said the minister.

Under Malaysia's quota policy, 55 per cent of all university places are reserved for Malay and other bumiputra students.

The Chinese community, which accounts for 27 per cent of the country's population, is left to compete with other non-bumiputras for the remaining 45 per cent of university places.

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently acknowledged the problem when he said that the government had difficulty filling up the Malay quota because their qualifications were not good enough.

He pointed out that many Chinese students were being turned away from local universities even though they had better results than Malays.The academically bright Chinese students usually choose local private universities or foreign countries to pursue their tertiary education.But with the softening economy, the competition for local public university places has increased and Datuk Hon's party, the MCA, is now spearheading a campaign for a fairer system.

According to MCA statistics, many of these students scored between seven and 10 straight As in the SPM examinations and there was no reason why they should not be offered places.

But Datuk Hon said the reason why many Chinese students had their university applications rejected was that they were weak in extra-curricular activities.