KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) fully supports the Cabinet’s decision to maintain the entry quota of 90 per cent Bumiputera students and 10 per cent non-Bumiputera students for public university matriculation programme.
Its vice-chancellor Prof Dr Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani said the increase in student intake to 40,000 places compared to 25,000 earlier is seen as fair as it is in line with the original objective of the programme when it was introduced.
“(The programme) is to develop potential Bumiputera students in science, technology and professional fields via quality pre-university education to produce excellent human capital.
“It should be reminded that the matriculation programme was introduced especially for Bumiputera students following the problem of racial imbalance at universities and it was the Cabinet under the leadership of Tun Dr Mahathir in June 2002, which approved an allocation of 10 per cent quota for non-Bumiputeras starting from the 2003 intake.
“As such, the decision of the Cabinet on April 24 to increase the intake of students was the second concession after 16 years by the government to resolve the problem of eligible non-Bumiputeras who could not obtain places in line with the mission and vision of New Malaysia to be more inclusive,” he said in a statement today.
On April 24, Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said the intake of student into the Education Ministry matriculation programme would be increased to 40,000 places compared to 25,000 earlier.
He said the Pakatan Harapan government sees the need to increase the number of students in science and the existing capacity of the programme should therefore be maximised for the purpose. – Bernama
