PSD extends bursary offer to excellent pre-university students

PETALING JAYA: The Public Service Department (PSD) has extended its bursary offer to all students with excellent pre-university results to pursue their first degree.

There will be 1,000 spaces offered under the post-bursary programme, re-branded as the Excellent Pre-University Programme (PCPU or Program Cemerlang Pra Universiti).

At present, the programme is only offered to holders of the Education Ministry bursary, which goes to 9A+ scorers of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).

“The Post-Bursary Programme will no longer be granted automatically (to the bursary students). “And there will be a new selection mechanism for students to obtain sponsorship for their degree programmes.

“This is to allow those who did not obtain 9A+ in their SPM, but have excellent pre-university grades to also receive PSD sponsorship,” the department said in a statement yesterday. The latest ruling was decided by the Scholarship Special Committee under PSD.

“PCPU will provide opportunities to excellent students from all races and socio-economic backgrounds to pursue their first degree, whether locally or overseas, under its sponsorship programme,” the statement added.

Post-bursary students and those who completed SPM last year and are currently pursuing their pre-university studies – such as foundation, matriculation, A-levels, International Baccalaureate (IB) and Ausmat – can apply for the PCPU beginning next year for their first degree.

They can apply online through PSD’s website www.jpa.gov.my. The degree programme can be pursued in either local or foreign institutes of higher learning.

“Applicants can apply for degree programmes in medical and health sciences, engineering and technical, physics, life sciences and social sciences,” said PSD.

But those wanting to pursue dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, dietetics and architecture can only do so at local institutes of higher learning.

Selection for PCPU would take into account four factors – academic, co-curricular, family’s socio-economic background and applicant’s performance in the Student Assessment Centre.