UiTM remains closed to non-bumi, Dewan Rakyat told

PARLIAMENT | Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) will remain closed to non-bumiputera students, the government signalled today.

The government also appears to have settled on a workaround to the issue of opening up the varsity’s cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme to non-bumiputera.

Speaking in Parliament today, Higher Education Minister Zambry Abd Kadir said there was a need to gatekeep UiTM entry only for bumiputera, citing a socioeconomic gap with non-bumiputera.

“The report from the Bumiputera Economic Congress in 2024 by the Economy Ministry shows that there is still an economic gap involving bumiputera in terms of the average monthly income, corporate equity holdings, poverty rate, production of skilled workforce and professional qualifications.

“In fact, the absolute poverty rate among bumiputera still needs continuous efforts to see improvement.

“Therefore, maintaining the UiTM policy for the Malays, Orang Asli and the people of Sabah and Sarawak is still needed in an effort to realise the government’s wishes in bridging the gap between races,” Zambry said in the august house today.

He said this in response to a query from Ramkarpal Singh (Harapan-Bukit Gelugor) on whether the government would amend the UiTM Act to open entry to non-bumiputera.

In a follow-up question, Ramkarpal also queried whether other institutions would be offering cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programmes that non-bumiputera can enrol in to address a shortage in the field.

Best approach

To this, Zambry revealed that Universiti Malaya will begin offering the programme this October, followed by other universities.

“The ministry is trying its best to find the best approach to resolve this issue. A discussion has also been held with UM and UM Medical Centre for the programme to be offered at the university.

“God willing, we are expecting UM to offer this programme by October so that those who want to pursue this programme can do so there. (And) subsequently, it will be followed by other universities,” he added.

UiTM is the only university offering a cardiothoracic surgery programme in collaboration with the National Heart Institute, but UiTM is only open to bumiputera.

Previously, the Malaysian Medical Association urged UiTM to allow allow non-bumiputera Malaysians seeking specialised training in the cardiothoracic field, given that international students can enrol at the university.

However, Zambry on May 2 said there has been no discussion on opening UiTM’s cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme to non-bumiputera students.

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