The Education Ministry has provided a special path to four groups, namely, persons with disabilities, athletes, the Orang Asli community and those from the low-income households, for admission to public universities, said its Minister Maszlee Malik.

He said with the special path, the four groups did not have to compete with those from the mainstream to pursue their tertiary education.

They only need to meet requirements set by the selected universities and would only be filtered among their own groups, he added.

“For persons with disabilities and those from the low-income households, we will choose the best among them, while for the Orang Asli community we want more of them to further their studies at public universities and for the athletes we want to produce more (athletes) to obtain education at the higher learning institutions.

“We provide this special path to emulate some advanced countries that emphasise participation of those from the groups particularly athletes as many enrol in universities due to their involvement in the field of sports science,” he told reporters after officiating the ‘Jom Masuk IPT 2019’ programme for the southern zone at the Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) in Batu Pahat today.

Meanwhile, when asked about the status of the proposed establishment of the Muhammadiyah University in Pagoh, Johor, Maszlee declined to elaborate.

He said apart from Muhammadiyah University, there were several other foreign universities including from the United Kingdom and Japan were also interested in opening their branches in the country.

Recently, Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, rejected the proposed establishment of the Muhammadiyah University branch at the Higher Education Hub in Pagoh to avoid confusion, dispute and disunity among Muslims in the state.

 - Bernama