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Cabinet on Wednesday should support increase of additional 4,000 university intake to match last year’s increase of 16% as the only fair and equitable way to resolve the university student intake controversy in keeping with the BN election pledge of “Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang”   Media Conference Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang (Penang, Friday): The Cabinet on Wednesday should support increase of additional 4,000 university intake to match last year’s increase of 16% as the only fair and equitable way to resolve the university student intake controversy in keeping with the Barisan Nasional general election pledge of “Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang”.  MIC President and Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said yesterday that he is appealing to the Higher Education Ministry on behalf of 387 Malaysian Indian students who are eligible to enter local public universities but are not offered places.    He said  that although these 387 students obtained marks that qualified them for places at the universities, they were not given any seats and this was a cause for concern. Of the 387, one student had a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CPGA) of 3.9, five students had 3.8-3.5 CPGA, 11 students had 3.49-3.0 CPGA, 170 students had 2.99-2.5 CPGA and 200 students had 2.49 CPGA and below. There are thousands of such cases, and this is why the only fair and equitable way to resolve the university student intake controversy is to increase the intake by another 4,000 places, which will mean a increase of 16% as compared to last year’s intake into the public universities – the same percentage of increase as last year when compared to 2002.  The concerns which Samy Vellu had raised about this year’s intake should be fully debated not only in Cabinet but also in Parliament. He said that courses offered to 53 Malaysian Indian students were not related to subjects taken by these students in their Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) examination. He said: "We have students, who had scored well, being offered courses like Aquatic Management, Environmental Science, Marine Biology and Chemical Analysis and Environment. What good are these courses if the students cannot find jobs after they graduate." These are again the complaints of hundreds of other students who have been given courses which they have no interest or have not heard about previously.  As a Higher Education Ministry has been created after the general election, it should address and resolve all these injustices arising from  the university student intake this year. (5/6/2004) * Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Member of Parliament for Ipoh Timor & DAP National Chairman