(Penang, 17th) MCA Vice President and Penang State Liaison Committee Chairman Datuk Tan Teik Cheng pointed out that serious biases have emerged in the admission to popular majors at top universities in our country. Among them, out of 227 students admitted to the University of Malaya’s Faculty of Medicine in 2024, only 9 are ethnic Chinese (about 5%), a steep drop compared to 79 (43%) in 2023; the admission rate for Chinese students to the law faculty similarly fell from 31% to 6%.
Speaking at the Teacher’s Day dinner hosted by Qiaoguang School on Saturday evening, he said that under the original centralized admission system (UPU), outstanding Chinese students have generally been able to gain admission based on merit, and questioned whether the sudden shift in the current situation may involve unfair systemic practices.
“Dropping from 40% to single digits is no natural fluctuation—this is systemic exclusion.”
He also criticized the “Fast Track by Payment” scheme (with medical courses costing up to RM500,000) introduced after the corporatization of universities, arguing that this in effect deprives children from lower and middle-income families of educational opportunities.
“The Chinese community values education most highly—no matter how tough things get, children must not suffer, and no matter how poor we are, we cannot compromise on education. Such enrollment bias is a major issue the Chinese community must pay close attention to.”
He called on all parties to pay attention to this phenomenon of educational injustice, urged the authorities to face up to the problem and make improvements, in order to defend the equal educational rights of all ethnic groups.
Speaking at the Teacher’s Day dinner hosted by Qiaoguang School on Saturday evening, he said that under the original centralized admission system (UPU), outstanding Chinese students have generally been able to gain admission based on merit, and questioned whether the sudden shift in the current situation may involve unfair systemic practices.
“Dropping from 40% to single digits is no natural fluctuation—this is systemic exclusion.”
He also criticized the “Fast Track by Payment” scheme (with medical courses costing up to RM500,000) introduced after the corporatization of universities, arguing that this in effect deprives children from lower and middle-income families of educational opportunities.
“The Chinese community values education most highly—no matter how tough things get, children must not suffer, and no matter how poor we are, we cannot compromise on education. Such enrollment bias is a major issue the Chinese community must pay close attention to.”
He called on all parties to pay attention to this phenomenon of educational injustice, urged the authorities to face up to the problem and make improvements, in order to defend the equal educational rights of all ethnic groups.