1. With regard to Higher Education Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir’s announcement that 27 top-performing STPM students will receive full sponsorships to pursue their studies at public universities, I urge the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) not to lose sight of the bigger picture and begin implementing bold and comprehensive higher education reforms.
2. What students nationwide have been eagerly awaiting is a transparent and fair public university admission system, not a higher education sponsorship programme that benefits a mere 27 students.
3. If MoHE continues its hesitation to undertake bold and comprehensive reforms to the university admission system, the vicious cycle of brain drain and inequality in access to higher education will continue over the next 10, 20, or even 50 years.
4. In particular, many Malaysian children will continue to be denied fair access to higher education if MoHE’s inaction and indifference towards reforms persist. Ultimately, they may be deprived of the opportunity to pursue the courses that they most desire and that are best suited to their abilities and aspirations.
5. If a country does not regard fairness in university admissions as a core principle, it effectively means that MoHE does not truly value talent, merit and academic performance. This is the enormous loss that MoHE is inflicting on the country’s future through its failure to fulfil its responsibilities.
6. Talent knows no race, and poverty alleviation should not follow race lines. MoHE must strike a proper balance between poverty alleviation measures and merit-based principles in national higher education policy.
7. In essence, the ministry must make every effort to retain and nurture the country’s top talent and, at the same time, implement targeted poverty alleviation policies to help children from lower- and middle-income families transform their lives through education, thereby putting Malaysia on a path of sustainable development.
8. DAPSY believes that the first step towards meaningful reform is for MoHE to demonstrate its genuine commitment to reform by making the university admission process fully transparent.
9. MoHE should comprehensively publish data on academic performance and related admission standards of students admitted to all public universities. This will allow the entire selection process to be subjected to rigorous public scrutiny and accountability, rather than relying on one-sided official explanations every year to placate students and parents after admission results are announced.
10. Malaysia urgently needs a world-class higher education system, not a Ministry of Higher Education that is always one step behind and lacks forward-thinking mindset.
11. For example, DAPSY and numerous civil society groups have for years repeatedly called for the abolition of the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA). Yet early this year, Higher Education Minister Zambry was still arguing that UUCA remained applicable.
12. It was not until the Prime Minister publicly stated that UUCA should be abolished that Zambry hastily followed suit and reversed his position. The minister’s bureaucratic attitude of being slow to recognise the need for reform is simply astonishing.
13. DAPSY stresses that MoHE should serve as the vanguard in higher education by charting a clear path forward for universities and higher education institutions on key policies. This requires genuine vision, courage and leadership from the ministry, instead of an archaic mindset of simply getting by, taking things one step at a time, and only taking action after facing public criticism.
14. It is only through comprehensive reform of the university admission system that Malaysia’s younger generation can regain genuine hope in a fairer and brighter future.