Varsities to only offer requested courses

KUALA LUMPUR: Applicants entering public universities will now only be offered courses that they have chosen following changes to the admissions process.

Citing a circular dated Jan 24 by the Higher Education Ministry, MCA Youth chief Datuk Chong Sin Woon said applicants would now be given two chances to appeal via UPUOnline if they failed to be admitted on their first try.

“MCA Youth thinks this is a good change. We noticed that throughout the years despite going through the first round of appeals, many courses still had vacant seats.

“Having a second round of appeals will ensure that there is a higher chance for course vacancies to be filled up,” he told reporters at Wisma MCA here yesterday.

According to the circular, applicants will no longer be offered courses outside of the 12 choices they have listed in their application.

Those who failed to get an offer can appeal to enter courses which still have vacancies.

Hopefuls who are successful on their first appeal will start their courses together with those who got their initial offer.

Because not all offers will be taken up by the applicants, the remaining vacancies will then be available for those appealing for the second time.

The circular pointed out that this was to ensure that applicants were only offered courses which they were truly interested in and that the leftover seats were not being “auctioned off” and forced upon applicants.

The first appeal, said Chong, must be made within five days upon receiving the application’s results via UPUOnline.

Results from the first appeal will be announced on the fourth week of August this year and for the second appeal, on the third week of September.

With the changes, students will now also be able to apply to enter Universiti Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia via UPUOnline.

In the past, both universities handled their own admissions.