By Asmahanim Amir
Pix Centre for Corporate Communications

BANGI, April 5, 2016 – The Higher Education Ministry’s centralised university unit (UPU) has received about 300,000 requests for admission to universities for the academic session 2016/2017 since applications opened in January.

Minister of Higher Education, Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh said, however, only about 60,000 places will be offered to qualified students for the next admission.

He added that the Ministry organised the Jom Masuk IPT, a carnival which was held at six zones around Malaysia since last January, to provide secondary school students with more information on the courses offered in Malaysian public and private universities and opportunities for them to seek consultations and advices from the institution of higher learning.

“About 200,000 people visited the carnivals which were held at five zones, namely Kedah, Terengganu, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.

“The location for the final zone, Selangor, is The National University of Malaysia (UKM) and we expect about 60,000 visitors,” he said.

In another development, he said the ministry will revamp the 1Malaysia Book Voucher programme (BB1M) next year following a study that showed abuses of book vouchers.