UPU appeal result – another disappointment


Email from a candidate who failed in his UPU appeal for placement in one of the public universities. How would you advise our disappointed young Malaysian?

The UPU rayuan result were out and i was expecting some good news after the 1st application where i got rejected, i checked the result this afternoon and was again dissapointed to see “Dukacita dimaklumkan bahawa anda TIDAK BERJAYA dalam Permohonan Rayuan Kemasukan ke IPTA Sesi Akademik 2007/2008”, the same thing i got at 1st where the only different thing is the additional Rayuan word there.

I’m a STPM student with CGPA 2.4 and KK marks of 7/10 (since i don’t have an excellent result, i have already chosen non popular/critical courses and even selected Sabah uni in 3 of my 8 choices, 1st, 3rd and 5th respectively) Since there are some friends who got grades lower than me got their courses (some even get 2 Ds and managed to get an offer) at the 1st application, i thought there will be a chance or at least some for me.

Failing for the 2nd time made me think whether the selection was done at random or something else where lower grades individual get the same equal chances regardless of grades. The selection were based on a person’s luck or the management at the iptas just randomly select from a pool of applicants, after this incident i suppose either 1 or both were actually the reason why there are a batch of misfortunes like myself besides discrimination in the so called abolished quota system and etc.

Could you please shed some lights here, or with my results i shouldn’t be asking for so much and settle down with the result of today’s rayuan, please advice, thanks

  1. #1 by dawsheng on Saturday, 14 July 2007 - 7:03 pm

    Please go to Singapore.

  2. #2 by blastmeister on Saturday, 14 July 2007 - 8:11 pm

    I thought only the brightest can go to uni. what is the purpose of excel in the STPM paper? for fun? come on, UPU is not doing the job well. these students bet their another 1½ years to gain entry to the local university. I was previously one of them. maybe they random select student or based on certain colour? Hey, where is the meritocracy? somebody sleeping the sleep again?

  3. #3 by patriotic1994 on Saturday, 14 July 2007 - 9:10 pm

    Consider SMTP already wasted. Don’t waste some more time with UPU. Look for local college, twining program should save money to go oversea, like USA. You may get 5 years Visa to study. But do your hard work to study and work during summer to cover your tuition fees. Work on-campus is fine like to be lab assistant, and so on. You may find friends from Malaysia opening shops in USA, work with them to gain more experience. You will never regret for doing this.

  4. #4 by Kingkong on Saturday, 14 July 2007 - 10:38 pm

    Yes, I agree with patriotic 1994 to forget about this local U matter. Those half past six degrees won’t carry you far anyway, and the future looks bleak in this country if the half past six cabinet still continues the ruling.

    A very right decision I made in my life was to uproot everything to the new land seventeen years ago and today, I am enjoying the harvest, and I can see the situation is getting worse. I hate to say that, however, mates it is true as Kit’s blog tells all.

    Be brave and take one step out to the first world country, and you will find you have better environment to prepare yourself for global competition in the future. I have personally met poor students with only a one way ticket from home and finally made their way up.

    Of course, they had to work extremely hard most of the time worked two shifts during their summer holidays.

  5. #5 by inandty on Saturday, 14 July 2007 - 11:34 pm

    Please try your luck in Singapore. You stand higher chance to get into uni in singapore. Forget about local uni.

    NTU / NUS / SMU always welcome M’sia students. Some students has potential to get full / partial scholarship with / without monthly stipend. Worst case scenerio, you are able to get study loan that bond you 3/4 years to work in singapore.

    Good luck to your application into NTU / NUS.

  6. #6 by wils0n on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 12:12 am

    Maybe patriotic1994 and Kingkong do not realize that not everyone can afford to go to colleges / overseas.

  7. #7 by fido on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 12:25 am

    Pls go else where where your skills are more appreciated….and…they might even give you a scholarship to study there! Malaysian U is not the way to go for bright students unfortunately.

  8. #8 by democratic junkie on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 12:51 am

    UTAR is quite affordable. Check it out.

  9. #9 by mendela on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 1:11 am

    May be you should try universities in Northern Europe like in Finland and Sweden.

    I was told university tuition fees was free.

  10. #10 by Billy on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 7:26 am

    So smart students are rejected and yet the universities want to set a Malaysian standard for tertiary studies. So what standards are we talking about? Is Malaysian standard = low standard = mediocrity?? Now that our people cannot measure up to world standard, they have to resort to coming up with “kampung” standard to justify themselves. If that is the case, why are our institutions still called “university”. To qualify for a world college standard is also out of reach for them. So I guess “high school” standard will be most appropriate???

  11. #11 by negarawan on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 9:23 am

    My advise is apply for a university in Singapore and get a bursary.

  12. #12 by muscaa on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 10:32 am

    So sad to see our Malaysian education system is in a mess. Singapore is taking advantage to absorb our students to their country

  13. #13 by shaolin on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 10:44 am

    Go for 3 + 0 or 3 + 1 courses in private colleges/uni. You too can
    complete full uni courses locally w/o going overseas!!
    My son did engineering course in MMU and he is now in Japan for
    training courses sent by the company.
    Why MUST you depend upon the public uni?? Are the uni standards higher than MMU?? I really doubt it!! My neighbour’s sons doing engg courses in UTM/UM, however they complaint about the lower standard of their engineering syllabii as compare to MMU!! So still want to join UTM/ … or other public uni???? It is NOT worth it!!

    Please just get study loans if you cannot secure scholarships for your study. There are far too many ways to study and excel from there!!
    Public Universities Are no longer of HIGH STANDARD Universities except in Singapore in nearby regions!!

  14. #14 by Libra2 on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 11:03 am

    Those with means think of the proposal made by Patriotic1994. Some parents have the money but are unwilling to part with it for their children’s education.
    Local degree’s are not worth the paper they are written on. No foreign country will recognize our local graduates unless they are one hell of a genius.
    What the heck is all your property worth when this country is heading towards a bottomless pit. Give a thought to your children’s future.
    I spent all my money to send my two children to USA. They spent two years in a local college and the remaining 2 1/2 in US.
    They never applied for any any local university and never did their STPM.

    Recently a Singapore firm told a Malaysian graduate at his interview that his degree would be accepted there as a diploma if he was willing to accept the job.

  15. #15 by taikohtai on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 11:42 am

    While I can only sympathize with the unsuccessful candidate, I think this case sends a clear message to all parents: You cannot depend on the Malaysian gomen to ensure that your kids will receive the education they deserve.
    The BN gomen is indeed a self serving gomen, and that’s the bottom line. Forget about your patriotism, it means nothing to your politicians. NATO is what they stand for = No Action, Talk Only. Worse, their racist policies are not meant for even the poor kampung Malays although we all know that this runs against their purported religion!

    Parents with school age kids need only to calculate ahead to realise that the cost of an overseas education is getting too exorbitant, especially if you only makan gaji as husband and wife. One way is to consider migration = countries like NZ is still affordable. The initial pain will soon be forgotten when you realise how happy your kids are. In a matter of a few short years, you will be happily settled and be able to enjoy your new phase of life. You then become the envy of many of your friends back home and guess what, your relatives may even expect your help with their own children’s higher education!! And guess what? Finally, you will understand what the Malaysian gomen is good for. And the answer is very simple: Got it?

  16. #16 by youngman79 on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 1:08 pm

    u have many other options:
    1)Private U (MMU,uniten,UTP,UTAR etc)
    2)Spore
    3)Get ur diploma, excel in it, then get a scholarship to do degree.
    My advise is, 4get bout public U, they have zero quality. Also do not join the 3+0 program in local colleges, the quality is worse than public U. Many of my frens who opt for 3+0 ended up doing work not related to their field.

  17. #17 by shortie kiasu on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 3:12 pm

    Look at other options, do not treat the failure to enter public universities as the end of the road, nor is it the end of the world; it could be blessing in disguise.

    As I siad look at other options available. I am sure there many other options to your bright future.

    Not every one will enter the public universities, there many who fail to enter not because their results are inferior. The selection process was never perfect, and year in and out there were many disappointed students who failed to secure a place in the public universities.

    Take it as trial in life and move on, I think that is the best way forward for one’s future in life.

    It’s never being a perfect world for all, so decide and move on rather than lamenting; it will not lead to anywhere but depression; talk and discuss with the close ones and the family member to brainstorm for the nexct best avenue to move forward.

  18. #18 by pamelaoda on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 3:29 pm

    You guys up there are really wonders. That’s why there is always a saying “the sky dont give you dead end road”. I hope this student could read all the options given here and the encouragement given by you all. Whoever you are, just a few years away from home is nothing if you could exchange it with something so important that may change your destiny. Go for it!

  19. #19 by patriotic1994 on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 3:54 pm

    My father sold a house and a rubber estate to send me oversea. But I studied hard in USA and got tuition fees waived via scholarship. So both of us done our parts. I am no rich person. My father was a rubber tapper. Things can change if you have the right attitude and will. I consider my “real” education start when I stepped my foot in USA. I am in forever debt to my father’s decision to send me oversea.

    Now when I run my company, I want the best people to join my team. But I cannot find that from local U graduates! It is very sad to read the resume of those applicants and rejected due to lack of skills. I have to spend extra efforts to train local U graduates, and due to this, I have to make sure I got the “right attitude” one so that I can train, and they can continue to grow.

    So, if you go to local U, it is a waste of time. They won’t prepare you enough.

    I will suggest if you cannot afford to go oversea, then may be try a few of these tips:

    1. Find a school that has the flexibility to study when you need it. It is okay to take long time to graduate, as long as you continue to learn. I know APITT has night class. Something like that.
    2. Work during the break to gain industrial experience. Or work during day time to cover your daily expenses and school fees.
    3. Looks for company that accept your ways of doing things. Show your good attitude and willing to work at low pay but as long as cover your expenses. If they reject you, it is their fault, not yours. Every good company, good boss like me (ahem) can recognize good attitude person during first round of interview.
    4. Keep your cost down. Don’t own expensive things like girlfriend(s), credit cards, cool gadgets… you know what I mean. Try to work hard and get your boss to reward you those fancy stuffs like a notebook, PDA handphone and so on. Use public transport. Stay with your parents or rent a place that is good enough (safety first please…), after all you are students and you are here to learn and build your bright future.
    5. Invest in Internet access and computer. Talk to the community (like in this blogs and others). IRC chat is nice too. Even if your major isn’t IT, you still should use Internet for communication and meet people around the world! The World Is Flat.
    6. Find a mentor who could help you to plan your future. You should be able to find a lot of these people when you go online.
    7. Read a lot of good books not really related to your studies, especially those that motivate you. Consider this as “elective”. Explore things like music, sports, technology and so on.
    8. Don’t be afraid if you are a geek or behave quite differently than your peer. You are going to success one day.
    9. Learn English. Speak English. Write English. Dream English.

    There are more tips and I hope the above is good enough for a start.

    Poor in money is not an excuse. Right attitude is the way to success.

  20. #20 by simsonlyy on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 4:09 pm

    I understand that many of you out there may not have the financial means to enter private colleges and the only way for them to earn a degree is to take STPM in order to be enrolled into the local university. I myself was not offered the course i applied for 13 years back and like all, my life was devastated. My only option then was to enter TARC and did an accounting diploma(which i did) even though i was as STPM science student. And the rest is all history. I now holds a professional qualification and are doing really fine in my career. Many of my friends went to Singapore and are all doing fine. If the government doesn’s want us, do we sit down and cry our lungs out? NO NO and NO. We move on. Lets not talk about being patrotic and only idiots do talk about it (i know all of you are grinning). So life does not ends when you are not offered the course of your choice or being offered non by our local universities. The future is far brighter out there and honestly..you should be thankful that they rejected you.

  21. #21 by k1980 on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 7:57 pm

    http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/guests.php?itemid=6455

    Going by the UNHDP Report 2004 and after 37 years of NEP, Malaysia has become the worst country in income disparity between the rich and poor, in South East Asia. The report shows that the richest 10% in Malaysia controls 38.4% of our economic income as compared to our poorest 10% controlling only 1.7%,….The already capable Malays, after 5 decades of independence, must no longer be beholden to an ‘affirmative mindset’ that entrapped them into an unrelenting ’crutch mentality’ that will disallow them to be truly competent, competitive and enterprising.

  22. #22 by ihavesomethingtosay on Sunday, 15 July 2007 - 10:12 pm

    Singapore welcomes you…….

  23. #23 by 2a5 on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 12:10 am

    patriotic1994:
    You said “Look for local college, twining program should save money to go oversea, like USA.”

    May i know which local college you recommend to apply and which not to.

    inandty:
    You said ” Please try your luck in Singapore. You stand higher chance to get into uni in singapore. Forget about local uni.”

    Actually by now, their intake dateline were closed, and i’ve always thought their admission requirement is much more higher than our local govt unis where only top students from our country can make it there or am i wrong here?

    negarawan:
    You said ” My advise is apply for a university in Singapore and get a bursary.”

    Are there any special requirement in who and under what conditions an individual can apply, besides, are loans being offered there like the ptptn here?

    youngman79:
    You said “Also do not join the 3+0 program in local colleges, the quality is worse than public U.”

    Are you referring to those newly established college or are u generalizing that all 3+0 program are of no good? plz comment further

    Utar is by now the best choice for the less affordable students compared to other private Unis but are the qualities comparable? Any comments?

  24. #24 by Daniel Quah on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 3:50 am

    we have to thank the government like a blogs video my friend just sent to me from youtube.com singing NegaraKu which it say that Gov have great plan that is let all non-bumi cannot admit to local U and give them chance to explore abroad and bring the technology back to Malaysia…great plan huh.. lol

  25. #25 by John F. Kennedy on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 4:33 am

    This blessed country is living the curse of May 13.

    The trust of Merdeka has turned into distrust.

    The administration has turned into maladministration.

    Our leaders of Merdeka are no more. Now we have misleaders.

    Information is now disinformation.

    So, go where your dream takes you. You will be surprised how the road opens for the courageous and how complete strangers can help someone in distress. I call this the way of the Lord.

  26. #26 by Anti_NEP on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 12:16 pm

    UTAR degree is definitely much better than those half pass six local universities. I would prefer to call them certificate printing factories. with majorities bright chinese students and no pre-set quota conditions the standard of teaching is definitely much higher than the local certificate printing factories.

    My wife was formerly lecturing eletronics engineering in one of the half pass six local universities. Guess what… passing mark lower to 25marks.
    Many malays women lecturers with PhD. couldn’t even handle a simple multimeter. In fact some of the bright chinese students were even better than these so-called highly qualifed PhD. holder. A malay lecturer with a 3rd class general degree got kicked out from the US university and came back to this bolehland and within 1 year or 2 she was awarded a PhD. by this local half pass six university and immediately promoted to be a lecturer and start teaching.
    Bare in mind, racism is very much rampant in local universities. Most of the lecturers are malays and many of them are racist when come to awarding projects and marking exam papers.

  27. #27 by patriotic1994 on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 12:35 pm

    2a5, I was studying at Inti College, Subang Jaya from 1990 to 1992. Then 1992 and 1994 in USA. Try twining, i.e 2 years oversea or more to learn their environment. I still wanted to know what are they up to now today!

    Cost at that time was about RM50K to RM80K for complete courses. Now it should be higher, probably a lot higher…

    Considering cost is an issue today, that’s why I suggest a few tips earlier. Basically, doing similar thing that I did in USA but in Malaysia. I identify these are the “keys”.

    It is the school environment and culture that we need to learn from USA. Their attitude is always learning latest thing. For example, I learned about RISC processor in 1994 and the world didn’t have this thing on the market yet, not until 1996 or later. And I also saw the advancement of Internet communication that actually helped me substantially. Internet is a “common” things in schools. You can access to it anytime, anywhere. I use IRC chat to talk to friends, join discussion group online… it was addictive until it affect my studies. But I didn’t regret it. After all, school education is just a training ground for my future well-being. A lot of things I actually learn AFTER leaving school. It is the “net” that I learned to catch the fish and today I no worry about hunger.

  28. #28 by Kingkong on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 3:20 pm

    “My wife was formerly lecturing electronics engineering in one of the half pass six local universities. Guess what… passing mark lower to 25marks” Anti_NEP Says:

    I believe your story. A relative’s daughter approached me for help in getting a job after she had graduated from one of those half-past six Universities. She has a second class upper in Computer Science degree. I was impressed at first however after I had talked to her a while, I just couldn’t believe it she could actually get qualified for that title.

    Her English was very bad and she could hardly write a decent application letter in English and her spoken English was poor, hardly could she utter a word. Those Cambridge School Cert form five pupils from the old days could any time do better than her. Language is one issue and the exposure is another thing, she just did not have any idea of how to attend an interview.

    However, I was determined to help her because this relative was very close to me and the girl really needed the job. I helped her writing her application letter, correcting her resume’, searching contacts for her and taught her how to attend interviews with all the possible ways the interviewer may ask. I only had the suspicion that her computer knowledge was not on par; however I am not an IT person, so I have no further comments. She just couldn’t survive the interviews right from the U S, Japanese to the local companies.

    This went on for about five months, and finally her luck came. It happened that a good friend of mine, a GM of a reasonably established factory doing export business wanted an assistant administrator and he obliged my request for help and hired her. I reminded the girl to try to improve her English whatever opportunity she could seize.

    However, the girl’s attitude was good, she was hard working and she seemed to do it ok. I met her seven months later after she was employed and this time she could at least converse with me in reasonable English and I am really happy that she has progressed to a certain level. Thanks to the GM, a qualified engineer and an experienced corporate manager appears to become a good mentor for her; a good mentor is essentially good for career development and I think this girl is lucky.

    How these half past six universities churn out their graduates is really shocking and amazing.

    Compared to my children, ( I say it for illustration not for boast ), who graduated from the Aussie University, the level of competency is different. They are so independent, so confident of themselves; they went through email application, panel interviews, and international telephone conference interviews on their own and landed with good jobs without much difficulty. My children and my relative’s daughter attended the same primary school in Malaysia and they were all very average pupils.

    Attitude, meritocracy and so fair competition, and environment finally determine the quality of the graduates. As a student, you should go and find such an environment to prepare yourself for global competition. As someone has said it, it may be a blessing in disguise if you get rejected by the local university. It is really not worthy to waste your valuable 3 to 4 years time when your brain energy is at the peak to acquire such a lousy piece of paper.

  29. #29 by BobSam on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 5:10 pm

    I m not attached to any of the local Universities, but I have met with some of their graduates from the Science & IT disciplines. The ones from South Selangor are pretty good, and I understand the research that they do is pretty interesting & timely/leading-edge.
    I also know of a graduate who joined a Malaysian private college, and she is under pressure from her Dept. Head to simplify the exam questions. I understand that the students ask her for the type of questions coming out in the exam. If she does not “assist”, they go to the Unit Head for assistance.
    So please the problem that we face is that of a lack of integrity. I dont believe that all the local grads that you guys have come across are so bad. Maybe u are seeing the bottom feeders. Perhaps the person in the mirror has to stand up and say, stop, lets go back to our basic foundations. Lets use the integrity that the Tengku, Tun Ismail, & others of that caliber had.

  30. #30 by boh-liao on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 6:24 pm

    “I’m a STPM student with CGPA 2.4 ”
    To be fair and honest, a CGPA of 2.4 out of 4 is nothing to shout about. May not get into universities in Singapore. Perhaps polytechnics there.
    Review your situation properly, consult various people, and take appropriate actions. There are other academic/professional routes. Good luck.

  31. #31 by 1688 on Monday, 16 July 2007 - 10:10 pm

    if i m u,poor student ,STPM result no good.
    actually u still got option.
    1.apply malaysia polytechnic but grad in diploma level.(waste 3 years).then continue to enter local U with ur poly result in degree level(waste 3-4 years).u need to waste 7 years n end up with third class university degree.

    2.apply UK working holiday maker VISA.This visa enable u to work in UK legally for 1 year in UK + 1 year tourism.
    work in chinese restaurent average can get GBP1000.u can get at least GBP24000 in 2 years.restaurent provide free food + accomodation.u can save a lot of money.
    U save the money u earn.then apply to enter UK University.
    tuition fees cost u around GBP6500 ~ 8500 / year.u should b able to pay tuition fees for 3 years in uk.degree level on need 3 years in uk.In this 3 years u still able to work part time to earn money to survive urself.don’t worry.here,study very relax,only around 20hrs per week.so u will got a lot of free time.

    [deleted]

  32. #32 by disapointed86 on Sunday, 16 September 2007 - 6:47 pm

    Speaking about Education in Malaysia, to be honest i am greatly disapointed about the system of education we have today..=(..regarding this post..im sorry to hear bout that but it is not a surprise to me as i saw many of my friends experienced the same situation..:(..the education here is judge not base on your inteligent but more to “colour of the skin” u have..~__~..i want to share something with everyone here..its regarding a very close relative of mine..she was a very bright student..obtaining straight A’s in UPSR,PMR,SPM and now was about to sit for her STPM end of the year..in her SPM she got 10A1 and didnt manage to get any scholarships regardless of the superb result she got in her SPM..its not 10A but its 10A1…wherelese one of her muslim friend obtainning 8A2B was given a JPA scholarship…i feel so sorry and sad for her..extremely sad:(..even i myself dont get such a perfect result….here we can see so obvious that the education system is unfair for us Non-malay…..Our neighbour, Singapore..never practise such kind of policy even though the government is mostly non-malay…i wonder what she incentives/scholarships will she be qualified for if she is a Singaporean =)..and now she is doing well in upper 6 getting 4.0 CGPA every exam…by the way, she is not from a wealthy family so they couldnt afford to send her elsewhere to continue her study..such a waste of talent…The moment she was not offered scholarships..it was a turning point for me and all this while i vote for DAP during elections..(Its not her case only, i got some friends fail to get the course they wish for not due to their academic qualification but most probably due to the inequal policy we have in our education today)….As for me..(to ppl out there reading,i got an advice)..if u’re not doing well in SPM..but still be offered to enter Form 6..1 thing u must bear in mind..if ure non-malay, u need to archieve a really really good result(excellent) in order to get a common course..if not u’ll be offered some weird course which is not popular…so, think twice before you ENTER form 6..

  33. #33 by TrulyMalaysian on Friday, 2 November 2007 - 2:46 am

    This is weird!!!

    I am currently working in the UK as a Bridge Engineer with a multinational company and I only use my UKM degree (yes, it’s true… Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia or Ulu Kelantan Malaysia which some ignorant Malaysians called it). I never have a Singaporean or overseas degree to get a job in the UK or Australia. I know a guy who graduated from USM and has never had any work experiences in Malaysia and he doesn’t have any Singaporean/overseas degree but amazingly he was offered a job by a British company based in Scotland and currently working as Well Head designer for oil rigs in Scotland and Norway. My neighbour, a girl from Malaysia who is a graduate from UIA came on working holiday visa landed a job as an architect in Manchester, United Kingdom. There is another young chap who is graduate of Aeronautical engineering from UPM is now working as a mechanical engineer in London.

    These are among a few examples of Malaysians with local qualifications working abroad and the actual list is longer than this. I also have a few Singaporean friends graduated from Singapore and overseas who cannot get jobs in the UK and most of them end up as dishwashers in Chinese restaurants or cleaners.

You must be logged in to post a comment.