KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- The Higher Education Ministry (MOHE) has stressed that offering admission to public universities through the open channel will not affect or reduce the quota allocated through UPU, Malaysia’s centralised university admissions system.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said open channel admissions accounted for only a small percentage and were limited to specific courses with available places, rather than being intended solely to generate revenue for the institutions.
“I would like to inform this House that this issue does not arise at all, as we will maintain the quotas that have been set,” he said when winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2027 (Budget 2027) at the policy stage for the ministry in the Dewan Rakyat today.
On differences in tuition fees, Zambry acknowledged that they existed, particularly for critical courses.
However, he said the government continued to take initiatives to increase allocations and quotas for critical courses such as accounting, engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) to accommodate the high number of qualified students.
Zambry also said that poverty or financial constraints should not be a reason for students to turn down offers to study at public universities, as various forms of financial assistance were available.
“The government provides various forms of financial support covering tuition fees and living allowances, including the Community College Student Financial Assistance, Foundation Financial Assistance and B40 TVET Scholarships,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, when winding up the debate for his ministry, said Malaysia recorded 32.26 million international visitor arrivals from January to September 2026, an increase of 2.4 per cent compared with the same period last year.
He said the government continued to intensify tourism promotion efforts using existing allocations to sustain the industry's growth momentum, particularly in facing global geopolitical challenges that affected visitors' travel plans.
Tiong said that, to improve international connectivity, Tourism Malaysia had worked with 24 airlines, comprising three domestic and 21 international carriers, to support 46 international flight routes from January to October this year.
“Of these, 35 were new routes while the remaining 11 were existing routes that continued to operate. They included Xi’an-Kuala Lumpur, Guiyang-Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai-Tawau, Xiamen-Kota Kinabalu, Busan-Kuala Lumpur and Frankfurt-Kuala Lumpur, as well as charter flights from Warsaw, Poland, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, scheduled for December,” he said.
He said the business events segment, including meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE), also performed encouragingly, with its economic impact rising 113.7 per cent to RM1.24 billion in the second quarter of 2026. The number of events increased 81.2 per cent to 125, while international delegate attendance rose 105.2 per cent to 83,596.
To strengthen growth in the segment, Tiong said RM10 million had been allocated to the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) to attract more high-impact MICE and international sporting events. Tax incentives for organising international-standard events had also been extended for the 2028-2030 period.
Meanwhile, Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Seri Dr Ramli Mohd Nor expressed his appreciation to the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (MOTAC) for its cooperation in organising the Sewang Festival, which brought together 18 Orang Asli ethnic groups on Oct 24.
He said the event had the potential to attract international tourists and was targeted to be held at the national level next year.
The Dewan Rakyat sitting resumes tomorrow.
-- BERNAMA