96 Mukherjee, Singh, Fernandez-Chung and Marimuthu
ethnic breakdown. In 2012, of the 300 scholarships awarded for foreign
studies, 60 per cent were Bumiputra and 40 per cent non-Bumiputra. The
decreasing number in foreign scholarships can be attributed to the higher
cost of overseas study and the increase in the local provision of foreign
programmes through twinning, three-year foreign university programmes
conducted locally and foreign branch campuses. Apart from the JPA
scholarships, there are other scholarship schemes provided by state, private
and business foundations, international funding agencies and Yayasan
Mara. Collectively these “other agencies” sponsor a significant number
of students, for example in 2008, to a total of 19,517 (90.7 per cent) of
sponsored students studying abroad.
No recent data are available on the number of JPA scholarship for
domestic studies; Figure 4.2 however provides the pattern for 2000–08.
Firstly, it shows the increasing number of JPA scholarship to study locally.
Secondly, while the total number of recipients for the nine years shows a
huge disparity between Bumiputra and non-Bumiputra recipients, yearly
data show the narrowing of this gap. For example, in the year 2000,
91.5 per cent or 3,444 scholarships were awarded to Bumiputra students
and only 319 or 8.5 per cent to non-Bumiputra students, but in the year
2008, the percentage of non-Bumiputra students rose to 21.5 or 2,174 as
opposed to 7,826 Bumiputra students or 78.3 per cent. These are indeed
FIGURE 4.3
Public Sector Department Scholarships for Studies at domestic HEIs
according to Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera, 2000–08Source: Public Services Department, November 2009.
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Non-Bumiputera 319969 623407 430593 1026 89 32174
Bumiputera 3444 8723 6643 4340 3994 4693 4727 6682 7826020004000600080001000 01200 0Bumiputera Non-Bumiputera