Photo: RAJA FAISAL HISHAN/The Star
PUTRAJAYA: The University Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) has urged reforms to the UPU system, calling for matriculation and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) to be treated equally.
Its president Tang Yi Ze said the matriculation programme places students in the same talent pool as STPM candidates despite having different academic and co-curricular standards.
“To ensure fairness and transparency, we ask the Higher Education Ministry to raise the matriculation standard to match STPM, which is more recognised by international standards like many universities.
“We cannot compare apples with oranges because they are from different standards,” he said after the handover of a complaint document to Higher Education Ministry officials on Friday (Sept 12).
He also said that the group had received numerous complaints from students and parents, highlighting how STPM candidates face greater difficulty in obtaining co-curricular marks compared to matriculation students — marks that become a key factor when UPU considers offers for entry into public universities.
“For example, each state has only one matriculation college. To get a national ranking, a student from a matriculation college only needs to participate in or compete in any competition or activities held by the college itself.
“But STPM students must take part in activities involving at least five schools from different regions, making it much harder for them to obtain co-curricular marks,” he said.
Tang also said transparency was crucial to restoring public trust, urging the Higher Education Ministry to release detailed admissions data, including ranking systems, quotas, and course allocations across pathways such as STPM, matriculation, foundation, and diplomas.
“The first thing is to publicise all the data, how their ranking system works and also publicise all the courses from every public university, especially the hot courses like accounting, medicine, law, and so on,” he said.
He also revealed that officials had acknowledged receipt of Umany’s demands and would review the complaint. However, no concrete timeline was given on when a decision will be made.
On Monday (Sept 8), STPM student Edward Wong Yi Xian, who achieved a perfect CGPA of 4.0 and a near-perfect 99.9% overall merit score, claimed his application to do an accounting course was rejected by UM.
He raised his grievances to MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong after all six of his applications to public universities via UPU – including UM, UKM, UPM, and USM – were rejected without an interview. He was instead offered a place in a management course at USM, his fifth choice.
Subsequently, on Tuesday, MCA vice president Datuk Tan Teik Cheng questioned Wong’s eligibility under the full payment system but not the UPU system, urging a review of admission procedures for transparency and fairness.
Public universities, he said, must not divert from their mission of nurturing future leaders through fair and equitable access to education.
“We encourage the relevant authorities to review the admission procedures to ensure they remain transparent and merit-driven,” added Tan.
