94 Mukherjee, Singh, Fernandez-Chung and Marimuthu
STPM programme as the common perception is that the latter examinations
are more demanding and the possibility of gaining a university place through
a matriculation programme is more likely. Ninety per cent of Matriculation/
Foundation students are Bumiputras with non-Bumiputras jostling for the
remaining 10 per cent of places. It is not clear if assessment requirements
are equivalent across the matriculation/foundation/STPM programmes.
Under the meritocracy policy, the intake of ethnic groups into public
universities seems to have normalized with ethnic proportions reflecting
the population distribution. By 2009, student intake comprised 66.1 per
cent Bumiputras, 25.2 per cent Chinese, 7.5 per cent Indians and 1.2 per cent
Others. Little information is available on how the admission policies based
on meritocracy really work, indicating the need for greater transparency
in student evaluation and selection processes. For the country as a whole,
the system raises serious questions on how talent is identified, nurtured
and retained.
A talent pool that falls outside the mainstream public system are
the graduates from the private Chinese-medium school system. The
school-leaving pre-university examination taken by these students is the
UEC (United Examinations Certificate) which does not qualify them for
admission to local public universities but is accepted in private HEIs in
Malaysia and international HEIs.
Impact on the Labour Force
Ethnic distribution in the labour market reflects student access and
enrolment patterns. The increasing Bumiputra enrolment and output
of graduates over the last forty years has had a marked impact on the
ethnic composition of graduates in the labour market. By 1990 Bumiputra
share in the labour market had exceeded targets set by the government in
professional and technical, clerical, service and production categories with
some way to go in administration, management and sales (Osman and
Shahiri 2014). In 2008 the proportion of Bumiputra graduates employed
was 60.0 per cent, increasing to 65.4 per cent in 2013. This is naturally
accompanied by a lower share of the labour market by the Chinese whose
proportion of employed graduates decreased from 31.8 per cent in 2000
to 30.4 in 2008 and to 24.6 per cent in 2013. Indian graduates maintained
a share ranging from 7.8 to 6.6 per cent over this period (Department of
Statistics 2011, 2013).