Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholarships

I've not heard of this scholarship before and was surprised when it was featured in today's NST but I'm glad that these 10 receipients are able to go overseas to pursue a post-graduate degree. It seems that this is part of an overall trend where more and more scholarships are being provided by different bodies (both public and private) for talented Malaysians to go overseas to pursue their post-graduate studies. I hope that this trend will continue.

The NST report only said that 5 of these recipients were pursing Masters degrees while the other 5 were purusing PhDs, all in the field of science and / or technology of their choice. It didn't list down where every individual was heading to with the exception of these two individuals: Nik Noor Jehan Nik Mokhtar, 22, who is heading to Oxford and Yee Wen Huei, 24, had chosen to pursue his Masters in Automotive Engineering in Michigan University, United States. These 10 were selected out of a pool of 283 applicants.

It is interesting to contrast this scholarship with those offered by the JPA. I suspect that all (or almost all) of the 283 applicants were applying to or had already applied to specific universities for specific courses before applying to this Yang di-Pertuan Agong scholarship. Tony has argued, quite convincing, that the JPA should only offer scholarships to individuals at the STPM or college level and not at the SPM level and furthermore, that the JPA should offer scholarships only to those who have offers from established universities. I think that this is a much better use of resources and incentives and it should certainly by applied at the post-graduate level.

I'm sure that part of the selection criteria for this Agong scholarship included whether the applicant already had a firm offer to a graduate program overseas and whether these programs belonged to well known universities (or universities with established programs). This immediately weeds out those people who are just 'thinking' of pursuing a post graduate degree but have not taken the necessary steps like researching different programs, taking the necessary graduate exams (GRE, GMAT, etc...), and applying to their universities of choice.

Of course, we cannot be sure of what the exact selection criteria of this scholarship is and whether all the recipients were headed to established schools or programs, without more information but I'm fairly confident that the individuals chosen are highly motivated and talented and are serious about their post-graduate studies.

It is also interesting to note that they are not 'bonded' to any organization but are only required to come back to work in Malaysia, whether it is the public or the private sector. I think this is a very open minded policy but I also hope that there will be some punitive financial measures associated with not coming back to Malaysia (like paying back a substantial portion of the scholarship upon deciding not to come back). After all, if we have the carrot, we also need to have the stick.

Good luck to this pioneering batch of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholars and may they do themselves, their family and their country proud!