PETALING JAYA, Sept 10 — Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung has proposed three reforms to the public university intake system to ensure fairer treatment of Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) candidates.
He said the reforms should focus on increasing transparency, reviewing the co-curriculum scoring system, and pushing for long-term changes in the UPU mechanism.
“The Higher Education Ministry (MOHE) and the University Admissions Unit (Unit Pengambilan University or UPU) must disclose the full admission mechanism, including quota allocations for STPM, matriculation, foundation, and direct intake, as well as available seats per university and programme, so students are not applying in the dark,” Lee said during a press conference at his office today.
He added that STPM and matriculation students should be treated equally in co-curriculum scoring, as the current system disadvantages STPM students whose achievements are only recognised at the district level.
“We must gradually reduce the dominance of matriculation intakes and create special quotas for students from poorer or under-resourced districts to build a fair, transparent, and humane admission system,” Lee said.
He shared that his office has received 80 appeal applications following last week’s university placement announcement, including 51 from STPM students.
Out of this number, six of them scored a CGPA of 4.0 with merit above 98 per cent but failed to secure a place in their top three choices of university.
“STPM is often called the gold standard, but when it comes to public university intake, this gold is treated like stone.
“If even students with full marks are rejected, what more do we expect from them before they are treated fairly?” Lee said.
Recently, multiple reports surfaced of diploma graduates and those with equivalent qualifications with a CGPA of 3.99 being unable to secure university placements through UPU.
MOHE Director-General Datuk Azlinda Azman had said that this was due to several factors, including choosing courses incompatible with their diploma field, not meeting special programme requirements, and submitting incomplete application documents.
She stressed that the admission process for students to public universities is based fully on the principles of meritocracy and rejected allegations of loopholes in the UPUOnline system.
On his part, Lee suggested that the government revisit the philosophy of education to ensure fair competition.
The current situation reflects systemic discrimination against STPM students in the university intake mechanism, noting that dismantling a good system could affect the global ranking of local universities in the future.
“We are destroying a good system and replacing it with our own. This is taking us further away from international standards and, in the future, could affect the global ranking of our universities,” he said.
Lee added that he will be meeting with the Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapha Sakmud today to discuss the matter further.
