Malay University Applicants Enrolling in Courses with Lower Cut-off Points Despite Qualifying for Those with Higher Cut-off Points

28 Ms Mariam Jaafar asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry has data on the number and proportion of Malay applicants to Autonomous Universities who have chosen to enrol into a course that has a lower cut-off point over other courses which have a higher cut-off point despite qualifying for these courses with their score; (b) if so, what is the data for the past three years; and (c) how does this data compare with Chinese and Indian applicants.

Mr Chan Chun Sing: The Autonomous Universities provide information on the indicative grade profiles of the 10^th and 90^th percentiles of applicants offered places in the previous academic year on their websites, rather than cut-off points. This serves as a reference to enable prospective applicants to make informed choices, based on their aspirations, interests and strengths, rather than opting for the most competitive course that they can qualify for. MOE does not track whether applicants apply for courses with a lower indicative grade profile than their academic results.