From the statement of the Higher Education Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamad Khaled from Yemen and my discussion with the Higher Education Department director-general Datuk Prof Radin Umar Radin Sohadi, no concrete assurance is forthcoming that the 4,574 student-victims of USM Apex University student intake fiasco will definitely be given places in other public universities.
Although Khaled described the foul-up by the country’s only apex university as serious and directed that an independent committee be set up to investigate the matter, he has no assurances for the 4,574 student victims.
All Khaled said was that students who were rejected by USM will get another bite of the cherry, as they will be considered for placements in other public universities by the University Admissions Unit (UPU).
This is scarce consolation for the 4,574 students who went through emotional havoc over the USM foul-up.
Over 22,000 students applied for places in USM, which was conducting its own intake of undergraduates for the first time, in line with its status as an apex university. Out of this number, 8,173 were pre-qualified but only 3,599 were offered places.
The problem arose when all the 8,173 pre-qualified students were mistakenly uploaded on the USM website as being successful in their applications, creating emotional shockwaves for 4,574 students and their parents when their joy of being accepted by USM were immediately dashed by the USM bungle.
Khaled’s assurance that the 4,574 will be considered for placements in other universities is totally unsatisfactory, as this means that they are placed in the same category as the over 14,000 students who applied for admission to USM but were not pre-qualified. How can this be fair?
My discussion with Radin Umar is also not successful in getting any assurance that the 4,574 students would all be offered places in the other public universities.
He said that there are 40,366 places for public universities available for the 2009/2010 academic session while the UPU has received 61,027 applications. The UPU results would be announced on June 19.
When I asked that the 4,574 students should be given special attention as they are pre-qualified by USM, Radin Umar said that all the 61,027 applicants received by UPU are also “pre-qualified”. He said meritocracy has to be the yardstick unless the meritocracy selection system is not followed.
I do not know what this “meritocracy” Radin Umar is talking about, but I agree that the 4,574 students should be given places in the other public universities without jeopardizing or denying the chances of other eligible students.
This can be done by a two-step process.
Firstly, in the selection of the placement of 40,366 places for the public universities from the 61,027 applications, the UPU uses its meritocracy selection system.
Secondly, those from the 4,574 student-victims of the USM Apex University fiasco who failed to get UPU offers for the 40,366 university places should all be given places in the public universities, which would mean an expansion of public universities places from 40,366 to include this group.
As the 4,574 students were “pre-qualified” by USM from over 22,000 students, I will be surprised if there is even five per cent or less than 250 students from this group who are not offered places by UPU.
I do not believe that it is beyond the capability of the Malaysian public university system to increase university intake by one per cent of its target intake of 40,366 students for the new academic year when such a tiny increase in university places will see that justice is done and that not a single one of the 4,574 students nurse a life-long grievance against an unfair university selection system.
This is a decision which cannot be taken at the bureaucratic level of the UPU but only at the policy level of the Cabinet.
For this reason, I call on the Cabinet tomorrow to give categorical assurance that the 4,574 student-victims of USM Apex University student intake foul-up will be given places in other public universities without jeopardizing or denying chances to other eligible applicants.
If a tuan with SPM 6As can get PSD scholarship to study engineering overseas, all the 4,574 student-victims of USM who have more than 6As in their SPM must be accepted into local U.
This is another big joke. We can expect more and bigger jokes to surface. Bolehland is becoming Bodohland, where universities are churning out unemployable graduates all the time.
In China, although only 10% of the students can make it, but it does not mean 90% are stupid, because the overall standard is very high, unlike in Bodohland where the standard is drastically lowered in order to accommodate all the privileged but stupid idiots.
Hmm,
I’m a little torn on this one.
An apex university should never have made such a mistake in the first place yes, BUT the problem was rectified in a day.
It is most unlikely that applicants made any other life changing decisions based on their acceptance into USM within that 1 day time period.
It’s not like it took USM a few weeks before they realised their mistake and by then most students would have been to far invested in the offer, turning down other offers, making accomodation arrrangements, etc.
So no, I don’t think it is fair that all 4000+ students should be offered places in other unis. Your proposed plan to expand the intake is great and I support that, but not specifically for the USM rejects.
Which universities do you expect the government to put all these 4,000 plus students ? Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Universiti KL, Universiti Main Belakang ?
Finally discovered the meaning of 1Malaysia. It is 1 for the person who coined the slogan and none for you.
Such is the quality of so-called Malaysian ‘Apex University”, USM!!
A real laughing stock to the world of academia.
When will the people in position ever learn? “Tidak apa” attitudes pervade the citizenry and too entrenched in their minds for far too long in this Malaysian society.
There is no political will to change for the better. Or may be they do not know how to change for the better, or simply what is regarded as better or meritorous.
Dear YB
DO NOT continue to let Najib, Nazri, UMNO and the Civil Servants at PSD mislead you and us.
They are all playing a game and will spin this way and that to get away with bloody murder!
Plesae compile the statistics for the last 3 years on scholarships not only awarded by PSD, but also Petronas, PNB, Proton, Telekom and all other GLC’s, Statutory Bodies and Companies and State Agencies and companies. PNB just announced they has awarded their scholarships for 2009.
Have them analaysed them by local vs overseas as well as by key courses such as medicine, engineering, Law, ICT, Pharmacy and then again by Bumi, Chinese, Indians and others.
My bet is that they have been saying 1 thing in Parliament while on the sly the politicians and Civil Servants have been giving away more than 80% to Bumis.
You, PKR and PAS must tackle this matter NOW so that the 55%-45% promised in Parliament becomes a reality. Otherwise competely biased top Civil Servants will carry on hijacking the scholarships according to their own racist agenda.
Also, make Petronas and Telekom which operate Universities from monopolistic businesses and Taxpayers’ money accountable to the Rakyat about the selection process to their Unis and their track record on a fair racial mix of students and scholarships awarded!!
The current practice is a huge rip off and a fraud on our citizens.
“All Khaled said was that students who were rejected by USM will get another bite of the cherry …”
the girls have lots of cherries for you to bite …
My niece didn’t apply for USM dentistry, but UM and UKM. Her STPM result was CGPA 3.84. Her friend who has CGPA 3.5 was offered dentistry at USM and was one of the above victims.
My question is, if what YB’s suggestion is accepted by the Government and those victims are ASSURED a place at other UPU instead of going through the selection as the rest of us who didnt apply USM, is it fair to us?
I wish USM could reveal the list and the results.. there must be a format for the selection. Is it so difficult to prepare the table? unless there is something to hide.
I think those being offered with sms truly earn their places. For a few friends of my niece who have received the sms from USM really did very very well. All of them are 3.92 and above…
Anyway, I hope those victims best of luck in the UPU intake. I am sure with their good results, all of them stand a very high chance.
Tomdumbo,
I have ONE tom for you to suck.
On 2/6/09 at 13:10.43, garfunky said:
Hmm,
I’m a little torn on this one.
An apex university should never have made such a mistake in the first place yes, BUT the problem was rectified in a day.
If an apex university truly has high standards, it would have carefully avoided making this kind of mistake, and thus, it would never need to rectify it in the first place, no matter how long it would take.
On 2/6/09 at 13:10.43, garfunky said:
It is most unlikely that applicants made any other life changing decisions based on their acceptance into USM within that 1 day time period.
It’s not like it took USM a few weeks before they realised their mistake and by then most students would have been to far invested in the offer, turning down other offers, making accomodation arrrangements, etc.
We don’t actually know that. The main issue here is that the emotions of the university applicants have been made a mess of by this blunder.
On 2/6/09 at 13:10.43, garfunky said:
So no, I don’t think it is fair that all 4000+ students should be offered places in other unis. Your proposed plan to expand the intake is great and I support that, but not specifically for the USM rejects.
Because of this blunder, those four thousand plus applicants have become victims of false hope who feel cheated. The university, the UPU & the Higher Education Ministry should not try to run away from their responsibilities. They should instead make ammends to those applicants.
I learned the concept of “pengkhususan” in Perdagangan subject when I was in Form 3. An advantage of “pengkhususan” is to increase the productivity. USM applies the concept of “pengkhususan” firmly. Why do I say this?
Few years ago, I went to the USM registration department to collect my Student Card. Without the Student Card, we could not borrow books from the library. Unfortunately, I was not able to get my Student Card that day because I was told that the person in-charge was on-leave for two weeks. One of the officers asked me to come back after two weeks. When I was about to leave, an uncle went to the counter and requested for his Student Card as well. He was an off-campus student and was from Ipoh. Like me, he got the same feedback from the officer. However, he was not very happy and asked:”Takkan tak ada pegawai lain boleh handle perkara ini… saya ini dari Ipoh… jauh you know…”. The officer answered:”Saya tak boleh buat apa-apa… kena tunggu pegawai tu balik…” The uncle ‘geleng’ his head and walked away. The uncle, like me, wished to use the Student Card to borrow books. Because of the “pengkhususan” concept implemented in USM, the uncle, me and may be many others, have to waste our resources.
Itu USM… University Sangat Mundur