Monday, June 01, 2009

Abolish JPA Undergrad Scholarships?

Check out Bakri Musa's latest post on the JPA undergrad scholarships. Well worth a read. I wouldn't go so far as to call for the JPA undergrad scholarships to be abolished but I wouldn't mind if the numbers were cut down drastically to only those who gain admission into the best universities overseas and if steps are taken to ensure that these students come back to serve in the public service.

5 comments:

George Tan said...

Yes abolish it! It is a known fact that JPA has been underhandedly been giving out scholarships biasedly during Mahathir's era together with the racially charged birotatanegara BTN program! Now Malays have been arriving in droves at overseas universities in the past two years while so many deserving non-Malays are not given any scholarships despite applying and reapplying. Come on who are they cheating. Just make the list public you will be so so so so surprised by how biased they can be. It's Malaysians tax money so Malaysians regardless of race should enjoy the same benefits! Wake up la everyone, don't be blindly cheated anymore by this government. Seriously, wise up!

Anonymous said...

there are many reasons for giving scholarships. academic merit is only one of them. even then, basing it entirely on SPM results is rather weak.

there are scholarships to encourage social change for example, given to poorer students who migļ½ˆbe the first in their family to attend university.

the social impact in this case is much greater than giving it to a middle class student, even if the poorer student's results are not as good.

perhaps the number 2000 already tells the story. This already reflects the intention of JPA. If it is entirely based only on academic merit, perhaps only 20 students a year deserve the scholarship. These boys and girls should be at least 0.01% of the year.

stop bashing JPA for the wrong reasons.

passionate to see this issue thru said...

When do you think that JPA can resolve this year on year issue.
The criteria for selection needs to be sorted out and engage a panel of experts to do the selection process.
I agree with Tony's suggestion of those who have been offered places by ivy leagues for undergraduate should be considered JPA undergrads, it is so tough to get into american ivy leagues, 35000 applications for 1500 places, isn't that a good enough reason to be given an offer by JPA, how many Malaysian students get to be admitted each year by ivy leagues?

Anonymous said...

Ivy league admission is not a good gauge. How many poorer students ever heard of ivy league in the first place?

In the end, that only ensure middle and upper class students ever get a proper shot at getting the scholarships.

This is unacceptable. Do you think working class student can swim English chanel, climb mount kilimanjaro?

Or do you think Ivy League value acts like helping your family farm jagung, looking after younger brothers and sisters or fixing your dad's old bike?

hnshzk said...

i got the scholarship from jpa.in short notice!!i'm really numb right now...is it great that i get to do foundation in inti college and get to pick pharmacy 4 my degree??sems like you guys know a lot...could anybody tell me what will i be facing?does jpa set a very high standard during fndtn...?what if i fail to meet the equirements??what will happen then??i only hav leess than 3 days to decide...plz help me...