SEPTEMBER 18 — Edward Wong walked into 50 years of turmoil in our public universities entrance process, which has been one battle after another over the years.
His imperfections turn it into a perfect storm. Wong is one of thousands in the overachiever CGPA 4.0 waiting room, whether with a STPM (Wong’s path), university foundation course or matriculation, who failed to enter a course of his choosing.
Necessary disclosure, his score did not include mathematics, which is a cardinal sin to many, if one is dead set on accounting. No math does not tally for them.
The Malaysian curse, a surfeit of brilliant students that a method to differentiate them fails to exist.
More than 78,000 places were offered for the present undergraduate intake. Consider the numbers who apply, the places are ample, no need for the hammer to fall. The unhappiness centres around those rejected by oversubscribed courses, like Wong’s choice.
Back in my day, there were like eight students with perfect STPM results of 5As nationwide — and an undisclosed number of matriculation/foundation scorers. Also, the absolute number of students taking exams leading to public universities were far lower.
Back then, we were at the start of the “a degree is vital” wave. That was before absolute numbers of candidates swelled and peaked together with the emergence of multiple pathways to university to fit socio-political demands. Messes it up. Maybe not for long.
Our statistics department foresees only a 10 million population rise over the next 35 years, and with demographic shifts in ethnicity, this may not be a pressing problem anymore in the future.
In related news, MCA’s electoral insignificance quadruples over the same timeline. Which explains why MCA President Wee Ka Siong went absolutely mental about this, he feels he’s going invisible like Marty McFly in the Back to the Future franchise.
Short version, it was not as toxic as it is today.
Back then, fewer people, less permutations, more discretion. Today, impatient youths live in TikTok and expect monumental changes within days. Messier.
We have cumulative grade point average (CGPA) scores, and there are thousands of them with perfect scores. The actual number of perfect scorers obviously is a state secret because it never appears anywhere. One needs to piece together from various news sources.
The total number of STPM 4.0s are1,266 or 3 per cent of the candidates taking that exam.
Add to that the total number of 4.0s from the 40,000 students at the 17 matriculation colleges in the country.
Matriculation colleges have a hard 90 per cent Bumiputera quota. If they do a similar 3 per cent and it is 1,200 from there.
Though my gut says it’s likelier to be twice that figure at least, the number of top scorers from that system.
Just when it seems job done, there are the foundational courses run by the 20 universities. Universiti Utara Malaysia has 255 foundational or asasi students, can we ballpark it to 5,000 students in total? And still no idea how many over there whack that 4.0 right out of the park?
It takes more than a calculator to figure out what is the actual 4.0 total for the country from the batch which finished their pre-university courses in 2024.
With such brilliance dripping out of Malaysia’s intellectual pores — without even considering the private sector students and the government/GLC scholars in Melbourne or London — our country probably outshines most nations in IQ points. Malaysia, brainiac capital of the Pacific, including the islands and atolls.
I should have knocked the lights out of my expat friend who spat out an honest observation, he never sees Malaysians reading on trains, only farming or shooting or shopping or playing videos the whole carriage can listen to on their smartphones. Did he not know that our super achievers are too busy to ride trains?
And those reports about half the population cannot read by the time they are 11, I can clearly speak with confidence that I would not be able to read such filth, like most Malaysians.
The Malaysian education system is seamlessly brilliant that students do not need to be graded annually or held back until they are proficient in their grade years because automatically Malaysians know everything they sit through, knowledge creeps into them by just them being humble enough to sit through boring classes.
Do not believe me? Then be dazzled that Malaysia continuously ups its school leaving and university entrance exam results, year after year. Even better through the Covid-19 years. Imagine if Malaysians experienced famine and drought, we’d have built spacecrafts and landed in Uranus.
Wee did have one valid point. There are more than 85 places in Universiti Malaya’s accounting programme. Wong knows that since he has the option to pay RM83,000 and complete the programme without state subsidy.
Aside from the 85 state-subsidised spots, which the university must maintain using the overall funds handed to it by the ministry of higher learning, it can offer places for full-fee paying students.
Malaysian public universities are desperate for money. They are expected to rise through gamed university rankings with less money while satisfying Putrajaya set requirements, and pay the staff, and manage the facilities.
Filling up programmes with full fee-paying students and accepting foreign students in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes — mainland Chinese students pine for UM — goes a long way to fill the coffers.
Thus far, observations are present but no solutions.
There are enough university places for the stars to the average at our public universities. However when it comes to top programmes, scarcity kicks in hard.
The technocrats have made decision after decision over the years, and as it stands, there are too many perfect scorers who get imperfect outcomes.
Life sciences is not good enough for Lyana who wants to be a heart surgeon, nor management for Chan who aims to be a partner at PWC before he turns 40.
The UPU university entrance system cannot cope with the 4.0 fest it faces. Rather than blame it, help it. UPU can shortlist the candidates and allow the faculty or university to run specific entrance exams for these elite programmes.
Apparently over two thousand wanted an in for that accounting programme. A more tailor-made examination and even interviews can help both candidates and the faculty match better.
This is not strange to the Milky Way. Separate entrance exams for prestigious and highly sought programmes are common.
Give those boys and girls some numbers to balance, pencil and paper, and a well-lit room. After that, ask them in person why being a partner at an international firm is far more central to their self-development.
Rather than lecturers ruing the low quality of undergraduates, their entrance CGPA masking their inadequacies, here’s an opportunity for them to get their best picks.
If the faculties directly assess a shortlist, they are better equipped to defend their undergraduates’ quality.
As far as bad ideas go, it’s not the worst to solve a perennial thorn of a problem for the government.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
