PETALING JAYA: The new government should review the current policy on overseas scholarships, said Pakatan Harapan secretariat chief Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah (pic).
Saifuddin, who was also former deputy Higher Education minister in the former Barisan Nasional government, said the new government needs to decide on whether overseas scholarships programmes offered by government agencies should be restored.
He noted however that details of such scholarships need to be ironed out, especially on the number of students who can study overseas and the amount they will be sponsored.
“We need to have a clear understanding of the real needs of the nation, bearing in mind that we cannot send all our best students overseas.
Saifuddin said he was approached about the matter last Friday by A-levels student Edmund Kong, who had brought together about 150 students to petition for the restoration of government overseas scholarship programmes.
Saifuddin, along with six of the students, had attended informal meetings on Tuesday with three scholarship providers - the Ministry of Education, Public Service Department and Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) - who agreed to evaluate funding opportunities for the students on a case-by-case basis.
However, the scholarship providers said they are not able to go beyond current scholarship policies until new ones are set in place.
Those who hold 2018 intake offers from the top 50 universities (based on the QS University Rankings) and who are looking to have their cases reviewed are asked to send an email to petitionforoverseas2018@gmail.com
In 2016, opportunities for overseas scholarships were substantially cut due to a recalibration in the Government’s budget at that time.
The PSD currently only offers overseas scholarships for only the top 20 SPM students and engineering scholarships to Japan, Korea, Germany and France to another 200 students.
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