The Education Ministry has requested Universiti Malaya (UM) to explain the claim that students from a private college have been admitted into its medical faculty.

Saying he was unaware of the matter, Education Minister Musa Mohamad called on the university to act immediately and clear the doubt.

"If the university do not want to comment, I will respond on the matter once I have the correct information," he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this morning. The university and college had refused to clarify the claim.

Malaysiakini

on Tuesday, quoting student sources, reported that 70 students from the Perak College of Medicine (PCM) have been admitted into UM's medical faculty each year since 2001.

It has been alleged that these students did not undergo the government's central processing selection system (UPU) to obtain entrance to the university.

According to Musa, the ministry has not given its approval to any private college to collaborate with public universities in the medical course.

UM students unhappy

However, malaysiakini understands that some bigger private colleges have been collaborating with public universities in offering external degree programmes to students.

These students will complete their studies in the respective colleges with the college resources and obtain a degree conferred by the university after they pass a final examination recognised by the university.

But UM students had expressed their discontent over such intakes, saying that they (private college students) generally obtained lower grades during their SPM, STPM or matriculation programme.

A comparative studies provided by the students showed some of those private college students have grades as low as 3.68 of their cumulative grade point average (CGPA), C4 and C5 in Science subjects during their STPM or matriculation.

Meanwhile, students admitted through UPU system are mostly straight As students or having obtained 4.0 CGPA (the highest point).

The UM students also questioned the ministry over its "genuine meritocracy" claim since additional students are allowed to be admitted into the faculty through the privately-run PCM.

Earlier, Musa visited the Integrated Full Boarding School located near the International Islamic University of Malaysia, in Gombak, just outside Kuala Lumpur.

The integrated school admits technical, art and science stream students.

Musa said 11 out of 28 of these integrated schools planned under the Eighth Malaysia Plan have been completed.

He said the integrated school enables students to make a better choice of the stream they wish to study. These schools has a 10 percent quota for non-bumiputera students.