Offers to public tertiary learning institutions based on meritocracy, says Higher Education Ministry

PETALING JAYA: School leavers who receive offers to public universities, polytechnics, community colleges and public skills training institutions (ILKA) are chosen based on meritocracy, says the Higher Education Ministry.

It said their merit score is based on 90% academic and 10% co-curricular achievements.

For the recently announced 2023/2024 academic intake for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) holders, the ministry said about 61% (144,911 candidates) of the applicants have been given offers to continue their studies.

This is from a total of 239,609 UPUOnline applications received from SPM leavers, a 1.03% increase from the last intake, which saw 237,161 applications.

“Of that number, a total of 79,668 candidates were offered seats at public universities while 65,243 candidates were offered to polytechnics, community colleges and ILKA, which provides a TVET-focused study programme,” it said in a statement today (July 7).

About 14,600 candidates were offered places through the special pathway with 13,649 B40 candidates, 346 persons with disabilities (OKU), 335 athletes and 289 Orang Asli.

A total of 61,286 male and 83,625 female candidates were extended offers.

Of the 208,833 eligible, 130,819 (62.6%) Malay, East Malaysian (Sabah and Sarawak) and Orang Asli candidates received offers.

About 50% (5,477 candidates) of the applicants are from the Chinese community from the overall 10,447 eligible candidates.

A total of 8,615 (46.5%) Indians and other races received offers from the 18,525 eligible candidates.

A total of 500 study programmes - with 143 certificate level, 47 foundation, 309 diploma and one bachelor's degree courses - have been offered for the 2023/2024 academic session.

The ministry said those who did not receive offers were because of unmet requirements, general conditions and/or special conditions of the study programme, unavailable vacancies mainly for competitive programmes, failing interview or screening test for programmes that require it, or were low on merit.

“A total of 164,028 out of 403,637 SPM 2022 candidates did not apply for UPUOnline due to several factors,” the ministry said.

The factors include entering Form Six, matriculation colleges, private higher learning institutions and receiving scholarships from the Public Service Department or Mara, it added.

Candidates may still check their application status via the official websites of the respective institutions at https://jpt.utm.my, https://jpt.uum.edu.my, https://jpt.unimas.my, https://jpt.ums.edu.my, and http://jpt.umt.edu.my.

Offer letters will be issued by the respective institutions on July 8 after the candidate has accepted the offer.

Successful candidates will have to accept the offer between July 8 and 16. Appeals can be made for 10 days, from today until 5pm on July 16.