63 students still waiting for PSD’s answer

PETALING JAYA: The 63 students who submitted a petition to the government regarding overseas scholarships awarded by the Public Services Department (PSD) and other government agencies are still waiting for feedback regarding their petition.

A-Levels student Edmund Kong said that PSD promised to get back to them as soon as it got an answer from the government.

Kong, who started the petition to the government to review its policies on overseas scholarships, said PSD was waiting to present a paper containing its recommendations to the Cabinet.

On Monday, Kong said the students were given offer letters from 50 top universities, based on the QS World University Rankings.

Time is ticking as the offers are expected to expire soon, with most of the students only having until the end of August to prove their finances to their universities.

The uncertainty caused 10 of the students to give up their offers and enrol at local universities instead, he added.

According to the students’ petition paper seen by The Star, Pakatan Harapan MPs had slammed the Barisan Nasional government when they had “downgraded” the overseas scholarships in an attempt to reduce expenditure.

In 2016, opportunities for overseas scholarships were substantially cut due to a recalibration in the previous government’s budget at that time.

The PSD currently offers overseas undergraduate scholarships for only the top 20 SPM students and engineering scholarships to Japan, South Korea, Germany and France to another 200 students.

“Today, with Pakatan being the government, we hope they can now live up to their criticisms, and restore those scholarships,” the petition said.

Sponsoring these 63 students would cost RM12.7mil a year, including tuition fees, accommodation and miscellaneous costs.

On Tuesday, Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said the affected students had contacted him regarding their predicament.

In a statement, he said the ministry contacted the PSD and was informed that it would be presenting a paper on the matter to the Cabinet.

Calls to PSD were unanswered at press time.