KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — Political parties have called for a review of the student intake for universities in light of a large number of students who have not been offered university seats despite surpassing entry requirements.

Former deputy education minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong was adamant that many of the unsuccessful varsity applicants this year were fully deserving of a place at their university of choice.

He said the MCA had received over 300 complaints, which were being reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

“Although there have been a small number of unreasonable complaints, most are real. You have to give students the opportunity if they score well.”

He said 116 of the students who have complained to the MCA received the maximum CGPA score of 4.0 and of these, 16 received no offers.

“Many have them have the ambition to be doctors. If I had a perfect score, what more do you want?” he said.

He said there were not enough courses in dentistry or pharmacy to accommodate the eight choices open to the students. As a result, they were forced to accept other courses and have found themselves with no choice as these were the only offers they had received.

MIC Youth’s Higher Education Bureau chief Mahaganapathy Dass said his department has received about 15 complaints from applicants who had scored 4.0 CGPA but had not received any offers.

“The number is increasing daily. The ministry should revamp the University Research Unit as some students who didn’t apply for specific courses were awarded seats,” he said.

He said the main issue previously was that applicants could not get courses of their choosing.

“We will appeal to the Education Ministry on Monday. We also hope for a positive response from the prime minister to resolve the matter as we want to avoid a potential brain drain,” he said.

He expressed doubts over the recognition of matriculation courses run by international institutions.

“Local matriculation programmes were not recognised overseas unless candidates were STPM students, who can go anywhere they want,” he said.

“I am also looking forward to getting statistics for Indian medical students. Last year saw an increment in the placement for Indian students, and we are looking forward to a higher number this year.”