SINGAPORE -- When some 600 ethnic Chinese students who passed a string of examinations with distinction failed to gain admission to public universities in Malaysia recently, a controversy erupted in the media over a major flaw in university entrance criteria.
Whatever explanations the authorities dished out in defense of what they regard as a complex selection system based on racial quotas, they had no satisfactory answers as to why the students who scored the maximum 10 rating were rejected by 14 universities.
Meanwhile the bureaucrats could not conceal their embarrassment after several universities overseas offered some of the rejected students scholarships. In an attempt at damage control, the government not only decided that many students who received 10s be admitted to local universities, but also offered some scholarships for universities abroad.