Education Malaysia for Students

Mohamed Bukhairy Sofian / Pic Credit The Star Online: A 23-year-old Universiti Malaya student will challenge Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for the Pekan parliamentary seat in the 13th general election. Gerakan Mahasiswa PRU13 (GM13), a coalition of student groups, will field political science student Mohamed Bukhairy Sofian as an independent candidate.[...] [T]he student manifesto outlines eight main points, including full autonomy for local universities, academic freedom, free education at the tertiary level, and that students are allowed to manage their own affairs. Finally, we have our first undergraduate contesting in general election even though his chance of winning is so slim.

Bernama: The opposition's plan to introduce free tertiary education as stated in their election manifesto will be difficult to realise as it will have a big implication on the government's finances. Among others, the opposition coalition hopes to scrap fees for public university education, give subsidised fees to private university students, provide cost of living allowance to public university students and abolish the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN). In reality, the abolishment of PTPTN will cause the government to owe financial institutions RM26.9 billion and funding costs of RM10.8 billion. Repayment of RM3.8 billion received until Jan 31 this year would also need to be returned to borrowers. Former Education Director-General Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the private sector needed funds obtained through fees imposed on their students to run their institutions. So the logic of students taking PTPTN education loan is to give profits to private educat...

Bernama: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has approved yet another allocation, of RM20 million, to build or repair 13 fully-aided national type Tamil schools nationwide, said the coordinator for the Action Plan for Future of Tamil Schools, Prof Dr N.S. Rajendran. The allocation, given last week, was to cater to the urgent need for infrastructure development of the schools, he said, but did not identify the schools. The fund was over and above the RM100-million allocation given under Budget 2013, he added. In the 2013 budget, Najib, who is also the finance minister, had provided an additional special allocation of RM100 million for national type Tamil schools for new sites, additional school blocks and upgrading work. Since 2009, the Barisan Nasional (BN) government had allocated a total of RM540 million for Tamil schools, Rajendran told Bernama in an interview at his office, recently. He said that for the first time, the prime minister had agreed to hand over the allocat...

Bernama: There are more than 30,000 places available for certificate, diploma and degree programmes under Majlis Amanah Rakyat's (MARA) July intake nationwide this year. MARA director-general Datuk Ibrahim Ahmad said MARA this year also offered educational opportunities to around 2,000 students to pursue higher education abroad in various strategic courses. "Among the courses are Engineering, Economics and Accountancy," he told reporters after launching the Sabah-level 2013 MARA Education Carnival in Tawau, Tuesday. Earlier in his speech, Ibrahim said since its inception 47 years ago, a total of 687,249 students had successfully completed their studies at MARA Education Institutions such as Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), German Malaysian Institute (GMI), MARA College, MARA Professional College, Poly-Tech MARA College, Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) and GiatMARA (vocational training centre) Since its inception, more than 500,000 students received MARA's educati...

National Scholarships for Top 50 SPM Scorers / Pic Credit The Star Online: Fifty SPM top scorers were awarded the prestigious National Scholarships that will pay for pre-university and degree courses of their choice, locally or overseas. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said Monday, the scholarship, which is in its fourth year, would help develop highly-skilled and talented people who would be valuable for the country's future. Congrats to all top SPM scorers, you deserve these prestigious scholarships.