by Lee Wei Lian
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 07, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — Malaysians failed to gain admission into the world’s most prestigious university for the second year in a row due to a slide in the quality of applicants, said Harvard University’s selection panel chief for Malaysia.
Not only did no Malaysian student receive an offer letter but none apparently was even good enough to make it to the interview rounds.
This comes after a controversy erupte over the quality of Malaysian education when Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin pointed to a World Economic Forum report to claim that Malaysians had a higher standard of education compared to that in some advanced countries.
Opposition lawmaker Tony Pua later rubbished Muhyiddin’s claims, pointing to another international study — the PISA 2009+ — that showed Malaysian students lagging far behind western nations in terms of literacy, mathematics and scientific understanding.
Datuk Dr Goh Cheng Teik, who leads the Harvard team that interviews prospective Malaysian students, said he was informed the quality of applicants had deteriorated.
“I called the Harvard College of Admissions Office and was told that although they received applications from Malaysian students, no one was shortlisted for interviews as they are not considered competitive enough,” he was quoted as saying by The Star.
A two-year absence from incoming Harvard freshman classes is enough to raise concerns over the quality trends of Malaysian education given that at least one Malaysian had been admitted to Harvard every year from 1985 to 2010.
A statement from Harvard’s interview panel showed that Malaysia was only fourth among Southeast Asian countries in terms of enrolment in the Ivy League institution.
Singapore has the highest number of Harvard undergraduates with 18, followed by Thailand with seven, Vietnam with six, Malaysia with five and Indonesia with two.
SMK Damansara Jaya alumnus Avinaash Subramaniam, who was awarded a full scholarship, was the last Malaysian accepted at Harvard in 2010.
Harvard was ranked the world’s best university for seven consecutive years by Times Higher Education (THE) until it was bumped into second place by the California Institute of Technology last year.
It was ranked the No. 1 university in the world last year by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Some 34,950 applicants were received by Harvard for the 2016 graduating class and only 6.3 per cent were accepted.
According to the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness report that was cited by Muhyiddin, Malaysia was ranked 14th among 142 countries and second in Asean for quality education.
Pua pointed out however that the WEF study was merely based on the opinions of 87 local businessmen who were asked to rate on a scale of one to seven how much they felt the country’s educational system has met the needs of a competitive economy.
He noted that the PISA report said that only “56 per cent of students are estimated to have a proficiency in reading literacy that is at or above the baseline level needed to participate actively and productively in life”.
For mathematics, the PISA study revealed that only 41 per cent of students are proficient in the subject at the baseline level. For science, 57 per cent made the baseline level.
#1 by pulau_sibu on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 12:38 pm
I heard that there is a student with roots in Sibu who got into Harvard Medical School the year before for the Ph.D. program The person was offered the position with fellowship at 5 or 6 top US universities, including Stanford, Berkeley,…
#2 by Jeffrey on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 12:39 pm
Is Harvard such a big deal? Prestige? What’s that? I thought its quality of education. But consider this.
• Intrinsic value of education? Many other universities not so renowned also offer it. Education is a function of a person’s innate capacity and interest to learn, having which the University of Hard Rocks of Life offers continuous and more relevant education, without which even Cambridge or Harvard will not do!
• Economic value of its degree? Yes if you are required to hawk around big corporations especially in US and commonwealth countries, asking them to employ you, your Harvard degree being, ceteris paribus, definitely an advantage over others! Then again in Malaysia your getting a job is also in part depending on connections of who your father and his friends know. And if you believe in entrepreneurship – as a way to climb the to top of Food Chain- why bother? You will be hiring Harvard graduates to do your bidding. Ask Bill Gates – he knows, he dropped out and became the world’s richest man!
• Network? Harvard is valuable in terms of social capital and prestige because off springs of celebrities, kings, billionaires are accepted there (not necessarily due to their scholarly record or academic excellence). You study there, your class mate or room mate is probably some scion or heirs to family empires that is of economic benefit to you later in life. But you don’t have to go to Harvard, can consider Beijing university as some Harvard graduates send their offspring there to pick up Mandarin (in view of China being rising economic power. In Malaysia in terms of economic benefit of the sort enjoyed by NFC, it is more important to get into UMNO’s than Harvard’s circle of network! Why else did Muhyiddin claim that Malaysians had a higher standard of education compared to that in some advanced countries?
So is Harvard such a big deal?
#3 by monsterball on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 12:49 pm
You get a lowly educated man like Muhyiddin to talk Education and you believe in him?
No Malaysians recognized by Harvard for 2 years…is so simple to understand.
Malaysian students are simply not good enough.
As usual…Najib and Muhyiddin will not make any comments and keep thinking …..how to win votes.
The more backward young Malaysians stay….the better for UMNO b….to rule forever.
#4 by pulau_sibu on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 12:52 pm
Don’t worry. No Harvard students will be able to make to boleh ministerial positions. Harvard produces people like George Bush. Do you still think Harvard is great?
#5 by Loh on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 1:04 pm
It is true that fewer Malaysians are able to get into Harvard through the front door. But do not be surprised that the children of the rich and powerful even from Malaysia could get into Harvard, through the back door.
#6 by sheriff singh on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 1:14 pm
First, we drop out of all major World University Rankings.
Our schools face problems as to its teaching, curricula and standards. (We have Ministers and civil servants who can’t add, according to Nie Ching).
Now our students cannot get admitted into major world universities.
Do we see a trend here? Is this the result of Najib’s ‘Transformation’ process with all the mind-boggling and high-sounding acronyms?
While other countries move forward aggressively in this 21st century, we appear to be the only one moving backwards.
Perhaps some PR MPs should ask for statistics as to how our many, many scholars who got 10As and above (and below), who were given overseas scholarships, fared in their courses?
How many of them were admitted to top universities, to second and third rate universities?
How many achieved top grades and were at the top of their classes?
How many got mediocre results?
How many dropped out, failed or did not complete their courses?
How many went missing?
How much have these students cost the nation?
How have these students contributed to the progress of the nation?
Has there been any analysis of the returns the country got from giving these students scholarships?
I am reliably told that many of our University lecturers sent overseas to do their postgraduate degrees did not, could not complete their degrees and could not cope with their courses. The receiving universities had to help them complete to save face for both sides.
Over the years there have been many, many signs that our education system is going to the dogs and nothing has been done by our 1Malaysia ‘leaders’. They only made ridiculous claims and statements like what Muhyiddin said a few days ago.
Stop being in denial mode as it solves and achieves nothing. Stop making our country an ‘educational hub’ when our quality is low. Even foreign students from other developing countries who come here laugh at our students. What more is there to say?
#7 by pulau_sibu on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 1:22 pm
I would be more interested in knowing where are all these previous 10A people? Do they end up with a happy career, or they already dropped out some where long time ago. This means all those things marked in the paper are meaningless.
#8 by dagen wanna "ABU" on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 1:29 pm
My daughter’s teacher said this of our spm standard (hopefully someone here could verify): 50% or more marks could get you an A. 20% or thereabout could get you a PASS.
I hope he is wrong. But with scores (actually in the hundreds) of straight As students each year and given the remark on the standard of our students (actually lack of it) by harvard I am inclined to believe that the teacher was in fact speaking the truth.
JIB JIB BOLEH.
ROS ROS CANTIK.
#9 by tak tahan on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 1:35 pm
What is so surprise when we have lop-sided and low quality education policy where meritocracy is not the criteria for bright students to advance their study in higher institution or university.Everything is about race and religion-that’s what make our education standard so low and thus continue to churn out robotic students who can’t speak fluent London but good at moo-ing like Moojihadin bin lembudin.
#10 by sotong on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 3:13 pm
To our so called ” leaders/ministers “, our education system is a success to get them elected into power and make money.
There is a huge mismatch between graduates and industries……many will be disappointed with their career prospect and income from their years of investment in education.
#11 by yhsiew on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 3:24 pm
Muhyiddin Yassin should stopped boasting about Malaysian education better than that of the West, but get the ills of Malaysian education fixed.
#12 by Jeffrey on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 3:51 pm
///This comes after a controversy erupted over the quality of Malaysian education when Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin pointed to a World Economic Forum report to claim that Malaysians had a higher standard of education compared to that in some advanced countries///
Malaysians’ do have ‘higher’ standard of education– how to come up in life be rich and successful by.’ampu-bodek’, get right connection in politics, if necessary change religion or race, get political position by “you help me I can help you, get licences and govt grant couched as soft loan, rob Peter to pay Paul so that Paul will always vote and support you even if you, when in power, could steal and at same time hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones loyal and sharing spoils with you to high public office to hang others . Think Harvard can teach this? We don’t need it. Our education for life here is truly superior!
#13 by Winston on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 3:53 pm
“I called the Harvard College of Admissions Office and was told that although they received applications from Malaysian students, no one was shortlisted for interviews as they are not considered competitive enough,” he was quoted as saying by The Star. – End of quote
Is that a euphemism for NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Is that surprising?
Since our education is always flipping and flopping between Malay and English as the medium of instruction?
#14 by sheriff singh on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 5:13 pm
Harvard College and University is not a big deal…..if you can’t get in.
They could always try MIT – Mara .. .
#15 by pulau_sibu on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 10:30 pm
conclusion: make it a news only when malaysian gets into Harvard
#16 by waterfrontcoolie on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 10:32 pm
Hey guys! Why do you need to cast doubts on Havard? Of course, the whole world does not depend on a single U; but on the balance, we still need something to compare and those top American and British Us still carry! Indeed apart from these Ivy league and other top Us, the USA system at high school level is being criticised for churning out hamburger boys/girls. In this respect , though we spend billions in basic education we are going down that American path. In fact just a few hours ago, I watched Channel 301 on a quizz programme and was indeed surprised that most of the primary school students got the answer right: If a group of 10 people has to shake hand with everyone, how many handshakes would it take? One of them did it manually, by elimination! Here we have cintanegara always condemning the Chinese schools for being chauvanist; yes the Chinese loves maths! Cintanegara, take the challenge say with 2 minutes after this posting? Anyway, we like to quote Bill Gates or Steve Jobs; you can’t duplicate them can you? Those Universities are designed to keep their nation on the TOP of the World! Indeed We have a rm$16 million [?] Bugatti in Malaysia, he only needs to be the son of an ex-PM!
#17 by dagen wanna "ABU" on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 10:41 pm
Blardyhell. Those Americans. How dare they deny umno’s supremecy. Ho I cintanegara. Time to organise a big time orgy and kasi protest Sam a dia orang. They are being anti agung anti sultan anti umno anti umnoputra anti Islam Jen is umno ungrateful somehow unpatriotic terrorist and communist.
#18 by dagen wanna "ABU" on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 10:44 pm
Eh moo dah naik marah ni. Jaga jaga ya. The wrath of umno tu memang teruk sekali. Berani cakap umno’s education policy tak elok.
#19 by tak tahan on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 11:00 pm
Moo,lu piki makan taih lembu la!! Lu manyak boloh punya adoication minister-sampai kasi kita punya students hari-hari moo dan berak saja dalam kelas.Selain tu apa lanchiau pun tak tau!! Inklish pun langsung tak la boleh cakap,apa macam punya student ni??
#20 by raven77 on Saturday, 7 April 2012 - 11:22 pm
No problem….
They brought John Hopkins to Serdang
Am sure through the UMNO connection (ie bottom pinching Jamaluddin Jarjis) …they can get Harvard to Gemas…
Shahrizat can be VC since she is out of a job, Moohyuddin can be Chancellor…..they can have a 99% Bumi quota…problem solved….
#21 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 3:05 am
Waterfrontcoolie raises valid question -“Why do you need to cast doubts on Havard?” Of course we need not. However the other way of looking at it is that Malaysian Education and educational standard is so going the wrong way south – a fact so obvious and sad at the same time- that it is also entirely superfluous and needless to try demonstrate this fact by pointing out that “Malaysians failed to gain admission into the world’s most prestigious university for the second year in a row due to a slide in the quality of applicants”. For such a demonstration (which as earlier said is not needed) assumes implicitly, by inevitable comparison, that “prestigious” Harvard used as benchmark gives the best tertiary education (which is not necessarily a fact, depending again on one’s points of view). I don’t know the play of complex measures by which Harvard is ranked No. 1 but isolating one measurement alone – that of entry requirements- it is probably true that the son of a billionaire Arab Sheikh (with mediocre academic achievements and test scores) would have a better chance to enter into ‘prestigious’ Harvard than (say) NUS that insists on strict meritocracy without reference to celebrity or wealth status.
#22 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 3:21 am
That the Malaysian educational standard has deteriorated and is perceived going South is so trite and obvious a fact that it is entirely unnecessary to prove it by pointing out Malaysians failing to gain admission into the world’s most prestigious university for the second year in a row.
For even if it had been otherwise of a few exceptional Malaysians being still able to gain admission into the world’s most prestigious university for the second year, it will not prove Malaysian educational standard has been maintained or disprove the assertion that it (on the average) is still on the slide for the worse, and viewed by all to be so.
#23 by boh-liao on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 3:55 pm
Moo moo said Y r ppl NOT confident abt themselves n Y must they always skim glory by associating with products of d decadent West?
What’s so GREAT abt Harvard, MIT, CalTech, Oxford, Cambridge, ICL? He moooed
Sg’s ppl so kiasu, must always rush 2 Harvard, MIT, etc – no confidence lah, mooed, ‘cos Sg no hv its own MIT, M’sia got, n M’sia’s MIT has morphed into UiTM, very good 1
Lagi, Moo moo very angry Harvard insulted M’sia, which produces more n more 100% A+ students every year, all crème de la crème 1; Harvard n USA, jealous lor, sabo us
#24 by cseng on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 4:58 pm
“…last year’s SPM exams, 10803 pupils scored straight As, with 559 of them chalking up A+ grades in all subjects.., why are we in such deep … (fill in the blank)?..”-Anil netto
Our education is so, very, awesomely good, if you don’t agree ask Muhyuddin.
This Harvard must be a christian, must be anti-umno, therefore must be traitor.
Ask Muhyuddin, if UiTM better than Harvard?
#25 by pulau_sibu on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 6:12 pm
This is what I heard, but am not sure if it is true. Australian universities are also becoming easier to get in, like boleh institutions. Standard of students are dropping. May be this is a phenomenon all over the world. waiting for your verification.
#26 by boh-liao on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 6:52 pm
Moo moo said Y r ppl NOT confident abt themselves n Y must they always skim glory by associating with products of d decadent West?
What’s so GREAT abt Ha r vard? He moooed
#27 by boh-liao on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 6:55 pm
Moo moo said what’s so GREAT abt Ha r vard? Sg’s ppl so kiasu, must always rush 2 Ha r vard, M IT, etc – no confidence lah, mooed, ‘cos Sg no hv its own M IT, M’sia got, n M’sia’s M IT has morphed into U iT M, very good 1
Lagi, Moo moo very angry Ha r vard insulted M’sia, which produces more n more 100% A+ students every year, all crème de la crème 1; Ha r vard n US A, jealous lor, sabo us
#28 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 7:15 pm
///Moo moo said what’s so GREAT abt Ha r vard?/// – boh liao. He’s not talking about what’s so great about Harvard in US or the global stage- he’s asking what’s so great about Harvard for Malaysians in Malaysia! Moo Moo was not educated in Harvard. One commenter even described him as “lowly educated” but he has got half a foot to the door to hold the top and most powerful position as PM in the country that no Harvard trained Malaysian could get even near if he had coveted and tried! So “what’s so GREAT abt Ha r vard?”
#29 by a g on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 7:19 pm
Perhaps the real issue here isn’t about whether or not Harvard really is the best U in the world beating everyone else.
Before going on, one has to admit that even if Harvard is not the best U, it still is at least one of the best. Let’s see what’s under its belt:
–75 Noble Laureates have been Harvard’s students, faculty or staff affiliates. (And many of its current faculty members are Nobel Laureates.) As our country is aspiring to produce its first ever Nobel prize winner in its history, to have as many as possible of our country people rubbing shoulders with those who have the experience certainly helps; likewise, to have fewer or none of our people there doesn’t bode well at all. But of course, one can say that Harvard is not the only U to have a lot of Nobel Laureates.
–Harvard’s library system is one of the largest in the world. ( with a total collection of 15 million volumes).
–Harvard’s alumni include, among others: Bill Gates(Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Ban Ki-Moon (UN’s SG), Lee Hsien Loong, Ma Ying-jeou (Taiwan’s President), many past US Presidents, and certainly the current one, Barack Obama; also, many influential scientists, artists and industry leaders. It’s not an exaggeration to say that many of among its current student body will one day become leaders in their respective fields. What an advantage to our country to have our people having networking if not rapport with those leaders from around the world; and what loss we would incur (vis a vis other countries) to have lesser of these networking and rapport!
I think the real issue here isn’t really whether or not Harvard is the best.
The real issue here, I think, is that our people do want to get in Harvard but they are barred because they are not good enough. And the real culprit may well be our having the ‘better’ education system.
But the real loss does not only belong to those failing to get in, it belongs to everyone of us!
#30 by PoliticoKat on Tuesday, 10 April 2012 - 10:11 am
Obama’s brother in-law is a Malaysian! You can only come closer if a future US president married a Malaysian or has Malaysian as a mom.
I highly doubt any networking Malaysians make overseas will do Malaysia any good.
Why? Cause you will have to serve the interest of UMNO. And really who wants to help the BN government after all the neglect and scorn it has give you?
In reality, Malaysians already get into all kinds of funny and interesting places on the global scene. We really are everywhere.
But I agree with you, the real issue is that our education has fallen so badly that even motivated students simply cannot glean enough information from textbooks to make the cut.
Here is my advice to getting into 1st tier foreign universities:: Don’t bother with Malaysian textbooks. They were rubbish when I looked at them in late 1990s then are even worst now.
When you enter sekolah menegah (secondary school) Go buy yourself university level text book at University Malaya bookshop. Read them, learn from them.
Math, Add Math, Biology, Chemistry and Physics in PMR, SPM will be a laugh. You need such university level books, because education in the US and UK have move on. What was once 1st university courses are now being taught in US high school and UK A-levels.
Our textbooks.. ie like “kimia” still teaches theories that have long ago been replaced by better ones. No point knowing them, because nobody outside the exam papers uses them anymore.
#31 by Jeffrey on Sunday, 8 April 2012 - 8:17 pm
Which is best U also depends on the individual’s perspectives and values as well. To some (even within PR), the best would be Al-Azhar University in Cairo, not Harvard in Boston US.
#32 by dagen wanna "ABU" on Monday, 9 April 2012 - 8:43 am
To me the best uni is Uitm. Yeah.
Hoi, cintanegara where is my 1m. The money you promised if I make this statement in this blog?
#33 by PoliticoKat on Tuesday, 10 April 2012 - 10:19 am
This is a bit of old news, but I want to note that 50% of Malaysian enrolled in Al-Azhar fail. And in 2008 Al-Azhar University cancelled its memoranda of understanding with 18 local colleges, due to the high failure rate of the students sent by these colleges.
Malaysians are also not doing well in Al-Azhar university either. So no matter how you look at it, Malaysians students are in a sorry state. Harvard or Al-Azhar.