RECENTLY, a 20-year-old from Bukit Mertajam, who scored a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 4.0, straight A’s in all subjects and 9.9 out of 10 for co-curricular activities — giving him a merit score of 99.9 per cent has voiced heartbreak after being rejected by Universiti Malaya (UM) for its Accounting course despite achieving near-perfect results.
Edward Wong Yi Xian said all six of his applications through the Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) were rejected without interview and was instead offered a place in Management at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), his fifth choice.
Speaking at a press conference at Wisma MCA today (Sept 10), MCA president Wee Ka Siong has disputed the higher education department’s claim that Universiti Malaya (UM) only offered 85 places in its accounting programme this year.
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Wee pointed out that nearly 200 students had graduated from the course annually between 2011 and 2024.
“Why does the data from Higher Education Department, the department that oversees all universities, say that only 85 places were offered when the (university’s) records show a much larger number of graduates?”
“If UM really only takes in 85 students per year, then over four years, that’s just 340 accountancy undergraduates at any given time. But UM’s total enrolment is 43,000 students.”
Wee stressed that Wong had, however, received a conditional offer letter for the same UM accounting programme under its open entry channel — but at a much higher cost of RM83,800.
“So under UPU, he is ‘not good enough’, but under open entry, as long as he pays 10 times more, suddenly he is ‘good enough’? Who decided this? Who fixed this number of 85?”
“And if you tell us it’s 85 seats, and I can prove to you that it’s not 85 seats, tell me where the other seats went.”
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Wee urged for a full review of the university intake process, demanding greater transparency over how seats are allocated.
“We must know. This is a procedure that must be reviewed. Are these places being traded away? “This is the root issue that must be answered.”
