Finally, the government aka JPA has announced the new scheme for scholarship. As expected, the numbers has gone down and overseas scholarship is being reduced. When the bursary program was announced in 2012/2013, it was an election goody. Somehow I knew it may not last long. Those who benefited are the lucky ones. Personally I feel we should stop giving scholarship based on SPM results. SPM is never a pre-university course. WE should standardised our Pre-University courses and use that as the University entry and scholarship requirement. Unfortunately, in the name of education hub, there are simply too many pre-university courses being conducted in Malaysia. This has resulted in agencies, including MMC to use SPM results as the main university entry requirement.
I had always felt that the best students should be retained within the country. However, it should be in public universities. Unfortunately, selection of students into public universities are always biased based on certain constitutional rights. Education should never be commercialised. WE can see the outcome of this commercialisation with the quality of graduates being produced nowadays. This in turn will also affect the public universities’ quality as it is never based on merit. We have just too many higher institution of learning with too few academics. We have more medical schools than what UK has for double the population.
Well, for this year, only 250 students will be selected for bursary. None from next year. Only top 20 students will be given overseas scholarship which I think is fair enough. They must return to serve the civil service. 200 special scholarship for engineering courses are still maintained. The local undergraduate scholarship will be given as loans. Graduates are required to repay 25 per cent of the loan amount if they work with government-linked companies; graduates are required to repay 50 per cent of the loan amount if they work in local private companies; and graduates are required to repay the entire loan amount if they choose to work abroad. For those who join the public service sector, they should serve within a certain period of time according to their field of work, for example within six to seven years for engineering and over 10 years for the medical field.
Personally I feel it is a fair criteria but does the same rule apply for scholarship offered by other bodies such as MARA, State governments, Majlis Agama etc?
*** update 9/04/2016: as expected, the government announced that all 2015 top SPM students will receive bursary to study locally****
PUTRAJAYA: The bulk of SPM top scorers who apply for Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships can forget about studying in top universities around the world.
They will have to make do in local universities.
The privilege of choice overseas study will be reserved only for the best 20, according to the Public Service Department (PSD) which is the country’s largest provider of scholarships and bursaries for post-secondary education.
In a media briefing here yesterday, a PSD senior spokesman said only 20 of the “creme de la creme” would be allowed to study in top ranking universities abroad and return to join the civil service.
“It is part of the long term plan to inject the civil service with quality graduates who will in turn be quality civil servants.
“They will be groomed to be our civil service’s next generation of leaders,’’ the spokesman said.
He said an additional 200 top students would have places under the Special Engineering Programme but would only be allowed to study in Japan, Korea, Germany and France.
On the new funding regulations, the spokesman said that studies in local public and private universities will be given priority.
“We cannot be having all our finest and brightest study outside the country as it does not reflect the aim of having outstanding students in our local institutions,” he said.
The spokesman also announced that there will be no more Bursary Graduate Programme from next year onwards.
For this year only 250 SPM leavers with 9A+ from 2015 will be offered funds through the bursary programme to study locally.
As for some 744 students, who qualified for the bursary programme in 2013 and 2014 and were hoping to study abroad, they will now have to do their degrees in local public and private universities.
The spokesman advised the 744 students not to be disheartened.
“You can’t get what you want all the time, just like everyone wants to be a CEO but that is impossible,’’ he said.
“The focus is on funding more people to get into the varsities here. The quality of our varsities have improved,” he added.
Stressing that the Government was trying its best to offer as many scholarships as possible from the RM1.65bil pool announced in Parliament recently, the spokesman said there was also the additional allocation of RM160mil approved under the recalibrated Budget 2016 to fund this year’s batch of students.
This amount, which came following the Budget 2016 revision announced in January, is meant to support 49,060 students, with 41,324 (84%) of them studying here, and the remaining 7,736 overseas.
He said among the criteria that will guide the PSD in its selection process were merit and the socioeconomic background of the applicant, besides grades and co-curricular achievements.
The spokesman said the department will also focus on those categorised in the B40 and M40 groupings, with attention on technical & vocational education and training (TVET).
(B40 refers to the bottom 40% of households in the country who typically live on a monthly household income of under RM3,860, while M40 refers to those from households with monthly incomes of up to RM8,319)
A thousand students from B40 families will be offered the Dermasiswa B40 to pursue diplomas in polytechnics and public universities, including Universiti Tenaga Nasional and Multimedia University, he said.
Seven thousand university students, who are currently pursuing their studies in local public and private institutions of higher learning, will continue to benefit from PSD funding.
The spokesman added that a special briefing for 2013/2014/2015 Bursary candidates will be held soon, although no specific date was mentioned. More information can be found at esilav2.jpa.gov.my or by calling 03-88853603/3777/3398.
PSD introduces new sponsorship model
Tuesday April 5, 2016
10:32 PM GMT+8
PUTRAJAYA, April 5 — The Public Service Department (PSD) has implemented a new student sponsorship model this year, including the introduction of a sponsorship programme for 1,000 students from the B40 families.
(B40 relates to bottom 40 per cent household income) Besides the B40 Dermasiswa programme and five other sponsorship schemes, the new model also requires students to sit for the Cambridge Online Test (COT), to evaluate the applicant’s personality and tendencies.
A senior PSD officer said overall, the new PSD sponsorship model was drafted based on four key thrusts, namely merit and inclusivity; focus on the B40 group, M40 and the Technical and Vocational Education Training(TVET); development of Malaysia as an education hub; and, return on investment (ROI).
“The new model focuses on the sponsorship of students to local higher learning institutions to retain the brightest students in the country, thus supporting efforts to make Malaysia a regional education hub,” he said.
Five other sponsorship programmes are the National Scholarship Programme; the Special Engineering Programme to Japan, Korea, France and Germany; the Local Undergraduate Programme; the Post-Bursary Programme; and the Bursary Programme.
He said to ensure commensurate returns, starting this year, sponsorship would be implemented in the form of variable rate loans except for the Dermasiswa B40 programme.
The sponsorship agreement will be subjected to four conditions, namely loans can be converted into full scholarships and are exempted from repayment if graduates serve in the public service.
Graduates are required to repay 25 per cent of the loan amount if they work with government-linked companies; graduates are required to repay 50 per cent of the loan amount if they work in local private companies; and graduates are required to repay the entire loan amount if they choose to work abroad.
“For those who join the public service sector, they should serve within a certain period of time according to their field of work, for example within six to seven years for engineering and over 10 years for the medical field,” he said.
The PSD officer said for the Dermasiswa B40 programme, sponsorship would be given to 1,000 students to pursue diploma studies in polytechnics, public universities, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) and the Multimedia University (MMU) in the TVET field.
“It is estimated they will receive a minimum sponsorship of RM25,000 for a duration of three years,” he added.
He said the selection of students for the B40 Dermasiswa Programme was made, among others, through the National Poverty Data Bank or eKasih list, students from households with monthly income of RM3,690 and below and consideration on household income based on states and localities.
“This is part of the government efforts towards realising the highly-skilled talent development to meet the needs for skilled workers in the future.” On the National Scholarship Programme, he said 20 best Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2015 holders would be sponsored to study at top universities worldwide.
He said the sponsorship would cover the preparatory courses in the country, that were limited to certain fields, designated by the government.
For the Special Engineering Programme to Japan, Korea, France and Germany, the PSD officer said it would be given to 200 SPM 2015 holders, who were interested to take up a diploma or bachelor’s degree programme in engineering in the three countries.
The sponsorship would also include preparatory courses taken in the country, he added.
He said under the Local Undergraduate Programme, sponsorship would be given to 7,000 students to pursue their studies in public universities, UNITEN, MMU and Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP).
PSD will continue the Post-Bursary Sponsorship Programme for 744 Bursary Programme 2013/2014 (SPM 2012/2013) students, in order for them to pursue their first degree at local universities set by the government.
Under the Bursary Programme, he said sponsorship would be given to those who obtained 9As+ and above in SPM 2015, with the selection of recipients based on merit and inclusivity.
According to the PSD officer, the sponsorship is focused on the fields of clinical and health, engineering and technology, and science and social science.
“The Bursary Programme that was previously handled by the Education Ministry will be implemented by PSD on a one-off basis and for 2016 alone. This programme will not be continued, beginning 2017,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said a special briefing session with the Bursary Programme 2013, 2014 and 2015 students would be held in the near future.
Students involved can refer to the PSD’s portal at http://esilav2.jpa.gov.my or contact 03-88853603/ 3777/ 3398 for more information regarding the briefing.
Overall, he said the JPA was continuing its sponsorship programme with an allocation of RM1.65 billion for 49,060 students comprising 41,324 students locally and 7,736 students abroad.
An additional allocation of RM160 million has been approved under Budget 2016 to finance the sponsorship of new students in 2016. — Bernama
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/psd-introduces-new-sponsorship-model#sthash.QyEIwPS1.dpuf
Pagalavan's Avatar 
Of course no
I agree that the new policy is fair with the intention to retain talent in the country. Previously, many students doing law, accounting, commerce, IT etc (non critical courses) were sponsored to do their degree overseas at far greater costs than what it would cost if done locally; where the quality difference is not that great.
Yeah, I do agree that what about Mara and other gomen agencies. As it is, a lot of funding has been directed away from PSD to Mara for education sponsorship.
Yeah wat about MARA?? Still allowed to waste nations money to send mediocre students to mediocre universities to be mediocre doctors whos life goal is to have 12 kids and take maternity leave for the rest of their careers?
You would be laughing if they were mediocre. A lot of them are just blatant poor students. Will fail in uni abroad. Thrust me i ve seen a handful. 1 went crazy, 1 went home and was given a nice place in a local institution and one continued to take exams for few years. Was my senior when i joined, graduated 3 years ahead of him. Govn off course continued paying his allowance and tuition fees for the years repeated
Malaysia sure likes to spend spend spend. All in the name of you know what…
waaa sound soo mad eh.. you went to mediocre uni as well ? tsk tsk tsk
I was a mediocre student in secondary school. I did get perfect grades in SPM but thats just because SPM is not a very good exam. But when I went to study with many MARA students then suddenly I felt I was an outstanding student (I was not) because the competition wasn’t much to shout about.
I got perfect grades in A levels. I went to a ok medical school but not the best in the world. Reason was MARA/JPA had deals with this school and I was assigned to this school on instructions of my pre U college. I have no regrets and am grateful.
I will post you this link just published in The Star today. Even students who are established Fail Cases continue to be given money to waste.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/04/08/mara-offers-50-percent-discount-on-loans-for-students-who-failed/
With that I rest my case.
Perhaps we should not use the term “scholarship”. It is obvious that many government “scholars” are not very scholarly. It is a well know phenomena that “scholars” have a tendency to fail exams. I believe many people have noticed that in more competitive educational institutions.
Financial aid for education would perhaps be more appropriate.
the uni’s that I went to (both undergrad and post-grad without any pre-agreement between sponsor and uni) both had non-bumi jpa scholars Chinese and Indians. so I wonder if:
– I were mediocre or poor student back then
– or jpa also sponsored mediocre non bumi students
– or the uni’s were mediocre Uni’s
– or none of the above ? hmmmm
in fact one of the jpa-sponsored Indians in my batch had some issue with immigration when he wanted to re-enter the country due to his cgpa not meeting the immigration requirement etc
Btw how do you compare a perfect As SPM for bumi n non bumi?
O ya, the undergrad uni was listed in the top 10 in us, postgrad was top 3 in the uk
Congratulations for going to good universities and if you are the top in the country I would have no objections of you getting government funds to go abroad then returning to serve the country. And I don’t give a rats ass if you were ethnic malay, chinese, indian, or bangladeshi. As long as you are a malaysian and academically the best, then you deserve a scholarship.
This is what is going to happen with the JPA system of only top 20 going abroad.
But can you say the same for the majority of your MARA, and previously JPA colleagues? My view is that there are bright students in MARA and JPA who deserve scholarships, but I would say the majority are just ok. Smart enough, hard working, could do very well in life, but do not need a million ringgit scholarship to go abroad. And I self depreciatingly count myself as one of those. There are off course the slackers who waste every opportunity given to them which I think constitute a significant proportion too.
As you highlighted in your post there were weak chinese and indian students, and Malay students as well who should not be wasting government money. I think these students should not have been selected in the first place, regardless of their ethnicity.
So now I applaud JPA for introducing this new measures. Only the best students go abroad.
But why is it that only JPA, which was previously the only venue of non bumi students to gain funding to go abroad making the change? Why is MARA’s policy not changing?
To answer your question: If SPM is the benchmark then you cannot differentiate a Malay 10A1 from a Non Bumi 10A1. They should be given equal opportunity and equal consideration for scholarship. Similarly, vice versa, if 10A1 students are not going to be given scholarships then it should be the same for both Bumi and Non bumi. Unfortunately with JPA shutting its doors and MARA still allowed, only Bumis will be going abroad on government funding.
You have experience of the American and British Education system and have seen meritocracy at its best. MARA scholarships are race based. (No Non Bumis can apply). With all the high quality education you profess to have, can you sincerely say that you support a racial based selection process in education?
– 10-15 yrs ago in undergrad uni, apart from jpa/mara sponsored students, there were only 1-2 malay self sponsored at a time compared to 10-20 non bumi self sponsored, those nonbumi were in Msian students association, could be more
– self sponsored could be from parents money or parents make loan from bank. would bank give out loan to a penoreh getah to send his children abroad? Would kampong folks be able to send their kids to uni without financial assistance?
– you could also question why they go abroad while they can do the course locally with cheaper cost
– people tend to make use of the opportunities in front of them, among the sponsored students there were also son/daughter of embassador, double profs (both parents) etc who could have financed their own children education!
– so to answer to your last question, yes I support it to stabilise the socio-economic status of the different ethnics we have in Malaysia, no I don’t support it when it get abused by rich/ influential people!
– btw we, the students, do feel guilty when our non bumi friends who had the same performance in high school were non selected for the scholarship, and I personally felt disgusted to know 1-2 Malay sponsored students who had only 6 As were among us in the program
– now I already started saving for my children’s college fund and I hope the same for the rest of my fortunate peers who benefitted from the program so that we do not take the opportunity reserved for others who really really need them
Btw, the 6 As were sponsored by JPA not mara, most mara students were screened in mrsm even before SPM
and for the son/daughter of embassador, apart from his/her perfect American English the she picked up from one of the American inernational school somewhere in Middle East, he/she was just an average student. It’s the connection among them ( parents and sponsor) that annoyed me.
Are you being sexist? What maternity leave has to do with scholarship ? Should mara and jpa assess scholarshp applicant’s life goal as well? Maybe questions like below should be in the application form?
– at what age you plan to get married?
– how many children do you plan to have ?
tsk tsk tsk
So I suppose you agree that whathever the scholarship is called, MARA or JPA or Petronas, it should be based on need and capability rather then wealth and connections? If that is the case then I think we are on the same boat. I however also think it should not be based on race.
I agree too with the narrowing of socioeconomic gap amongst the different ethnicities. But I think at this day and age we should be moving towards narrowing the socioeconomic gap regardless of ethnicity.
There is a misconception that the chinese are rich. That is a general statement and is a steareotype. There are also many chinese and indian kids from families below the poverty line. We are all Malaysian, should this kids be left behind because they are born another skin color.
As for non bumi families sending their children abroad, you have to understand that it was also a time when it was so difficult for them to get into local universities during the time. This was especially true for courses such as medicine.
Middle income families sent their children to local private universities, the better off sent them abroad. Parents sacrificed their pensions so that their children could have a better future. So I don’t think it was a luxury to many chinese families, it was more of a necessity. Parents had to struggle. Many of these students off course never returned. A grudge had been sown in them. They had perceived injustice. Who could blame them? The presence of only MARA racial based scholarships is a reversion back to the old days and to me is a step back in nation building.
I think your plans to support your own children is applaudable. That is what i am planning for my children too.
We perhaps have to agree to disagree as there is no perfect system. Certainly in blogs like this tempers can flare as it is all anonymous and people have vent their angers, but i think if we were to meet out face to face we could be decent malaysians out for a mamak stall experience together.
It was a good run of about 16 years, since 2000, this JPA scholarship with a 20% quota for non-bumis. But it’s now over. The best days were the first 7-8 years, when it was quite open, scholars go to Intec for pre-u, just need to get a place in UK or Australia and you fly.
The other closed scholarships like Mara, and State scholarships are protected, and will not be affected. Affirmative action will not end.
jkl, were you one of them? A level intec?
No, but I know many who went through that pathway. The later part, they open the pre-u to other private colleges.
Interestingly, Intec is now openly canvassing for private fee paying students, and resorting to advertising in the radio and started a cash for referral scheme. The opening of “scholars” to other ipts pre-u, as well as the drying up of overseas bound jpa (and actually, mara as well) students have hit them hard.
like it or not this is MALAYsia….
Its okie they get the priority…at the end of the day, we just migrate n let them have everything….
One day when I lose hope in our country I will leave it to those people to turn this to a failed state and migrate to a country that will give me credit based on my abilities and not race or religion. Till now I will do my best to serve the good people remaining in my country. So to all of you pro MARA or pro race based instead of economy or ability based programmes you can give yourself a big round of applause for your roles in bringing down our country.
When the nons become too small a group to subsidise the majority, it will be then be the rich vs the poor, and the dynamics will change. That will take another generation to happen. Until then it will be business as usual. Accept it, and if you think the kitchen gets too hot, leave.
The JPA scholarship at that time was a flicker of hope for a fairer Malaysia, 20% is better than 0%. I know many who benefited. The flame is now extinguished.
Do you know that the acceptance rate for non Malay in public universities is in the region of 80%? Thus it may be based on certain criteria but to say that some non Malay are rejected reflect that your attitude is chauvinist. Most top students will get admitted but they may not get the courses they want. Do you think that if a non Malay who don’t get the critical courses means this is due to discrimination and if Malay who got the courses means they are actually stupid and not admitted due to Malay? Sorry to say that,I think you statement is racist in nature.
Correction: “if Malay who got the courses means they are actually stupid and they are admitted purely due to Malay? “
When there is a quota, we can’t say there is meritocracy. I can accept the fact that Malays form the largest portion of students in public universities. If they are not given places, where would they go? I dont expect the majority of them to enrol in private universities even though being funded by the gomen. It will be too competitive for the majority of them. I am also thankful to the gomen for allowing so may private universities, both local and foreign branches to be opened, though at a much higher cost compared to public universities; at least many of them would not have to go overseas to pursue a tertiary education.
– The percentage of bumi population itself is already big in malaysia compared to the rest of ethnics, so accordingly they will form the largest student population in public uni, not necessarily in critical courses but in general. no surprise!
– majority of bumi will find private uni too competitive for them might be true, but my experience in private college 15 years ago (now it is a uni) shows otherwise. i was x-petronas sponsored in an ausmat program before I decided an american degree would give me better future. in the program there were 10 petronas sponsored, 2-3 self-sponsored bumi, and the rest 30-40 non bumi. I think if it were not for the petronas students, the lectures would have lost their motivation to teach. Majority didn’t know what they were doing, not serious in study. they were there because their parents could afford it. Even with less-proficient english, we, the sponsored students topped every test in almost all the classes. i guess the majority of smart non bumi went to A level instead as they perceive ausmat was less challenging for them
– however I did observe majority of non bumi jpa scholars in intec were crème of the crème
If what you say holds true, then I reckon that you won’t have any objection to implementing meritocracy with a common examination for entrance to public universities. This would dispel the perceived bias and unfair distribution as alleged by many. As it its, bumi forms a large portion of the population and there should be more than enough applicants to jostle for places strictly for merit.
– just because you stand behind anonymous identity, write whatever you want, stereotyping, throw bias accusation towards other group of ppl, and get support from ppl with the same mentality here, claps claps claps – doesn’t mean others would do the same too, and not everyone would agree with you. Why would I fabricate experience here? To impress ppl that I don’t even know? I think I’ve revealed too much detail as not many overseas-bound petronas scholars left the sponsorship before.
– I fully support the government to implement a fair meritocracy system in our tertiary education, so that the influential ppl don’t get to use their power to mess around it. But what are your criteria of fair meritocracy? Even ivy league unis’ application ask applicants background if they were asian, black, hispanic etc etc. yes bumi form the majority population, but they were / are ( I don’t have the latest statistics) minority in education. do you think the whole spm population are provided with the same fully equipped battle field to prep for the exam? Are they equally financed to get additional support learning materials? Equally distributed good experienced teachers everywhere? No they are not! Would you like to see some minority indians live forever in estate area just because their new generation can’t get place in public uni, and don’t have enough money to go to private uni? If you are flying far high in the sky, don’t forget the people who are still there on the ground
– The issue is they have been indoctrinated that their ethnic group is superior than others since the day they were born
– But we can not deny that we can easily find some malays who actually don’t deserve to be in critical course in ipta are there due to the reserved quota
– The point is don’t generalize, there is always smarts and dumbs in any ethnic groups in malaysia
“..they have been indoctrinated that their ethnic group is superior than others since the day they were born”
Really? No wonder!
“The point is don’t generalize, there is always smarts and dumbs in any ethnic groups in malaysia”
True. Except the “nons” dumbs don’t get scholarships.
How many from the kampongs,/new villages/estates who got less than stellar results were actually given scholarships to pursue their studies locally or abroad? The fact is only those who excel are given some very slight additional weightage but I dont think it really make any difference.
2015 SPM bursaries recipients, more than 50% are Chinese. http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=384687 “The prestigious Dr TMA Pai Gold medal awarded to for outstanding student was awarded to Dr Fong Chia Ying (from Malaysia) for her consistently outstanding academic performance.” She is on JPA scholarship. Her sister is also JPA scholar studying Pharmacy.
Where in the link does it say more than 50% of JPA Bursaries recipients are Chinese?
The previous JPA scholarship on analysis, consistently showed that 20% are given to non Malays. However the revised Bursary is different, and is based on simply achieving 9A+. In that sense, it is meritocratic. However, since last year, it had been quickly revised to only guarantee pre-U studies, and further sponsorship is dependant on reassessment, interviews etc, and open to all students, including those from STPM, Matrik.
This is the last year, and now a “loan”. It is cancelled next year.
Did the MMC opened ways for foreign medical officers now??