As many may know and expect, scholarships are given out to students who perform well in not often just their academics, but also in their co-curriculars. These students are usually the cream of the crop and are all-rounders with good personality and ethics. Every year, especially after SPM results are out, students begin preparations to apply for scholarships, as it's definitely the much better choice than taking on an education loan.
Certain scholarships have high requirements, such as the JPA scholarship which requires a minimum of 9A+ from SPM to be eligible. Many students don't reach achieve that kind of results (me included), and would look out for other opportunities instead from external parties. There are also a lot of companies that provide scholarships either based on academic performance or welfare need. Applicants are required to go through a stringent filtering process until the best candidates are found. If you don't live up to their expectations, you're axed. That's just how it goes - companies that sponsor students through their education require a guarantee that there will be a future benefit; usually in the form of a contractual bond, and if that student is going to be a future employee of the company, they must be of good quality.
Colleges and universities also realise the need for scholarships in order to increase their student base. With that, educational institutions, especially private ones have always offered scholarship schemes of their own. There are many types offered - merit, welfare, athletic and even musical scholarships. While it is understandable that these students should be awarded for their efforts, needs and merits, there are also questions raised when scholarship requirements are revised as and when the entity wants to.
In 2018, a famous private university in Selangor used to offer merit scholarships; where having a mixed result of 9As (including A-) in SPM would award you a RM4,000 or so fee waiver. As the fees for that university can go up to RM30,000+ for a one-year foundation program, it is considered a low or still fair amount, as once again, scholarships are meant to be rewarded to top achievers, mainly those that scored 9A+. However, in 2019, the scholarship scheme was revised and new programs were added to the scheme . In 2024, students who scored 3As in their SPM are now eligible for a RM2,000 fee waiver. Those who scored 5As can be awarded RM4,000. This is a good contrast to the previous year's requirement for the same amount. Those who scored a mixed result of 9As are now eligible for a RM15,000 fee waiver, almost 4x the amount awarded in the prior years.
This raises questions on the quality of students in the establishment. Awarding scholarships or fee waivers to a majority of the student population is definitely a good way to entice future students and lure parents into enrolling their precious kids into the college or university, providing financial gains to the company as a business rather than an educational establishment, However, this reduces the quality of student intakes, as now everyone can enrol and even be a scholarship holder under the name of the institution.
When high school students become aware that 3As in SPM is the minimum needed to gain a scholarship, they'll start paying less attention in school and give the minimum effort needed to score 3As, which is highly doable with last-minute cram studying. In the long run, students in Malaysia may begin to deteriorate in quality given that the bar set to receive scholarships is so low. When it's time to face the real world, they might even struggle as they are not used to the many challenges posed in real life as compared to when they were in university. However, these private educational establishments giving out the scholarships will continue making clean profit year on year - making these scholarships a great marketing idea to boost sales. Therefore, at what point can scholarships be defined as a marketing gimmick?
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