Dr Ting Chek Ming
Datuk Seri Dr Benny Lee
Felician Teo
SIBU: Local academicians have mixed feelings about the proposal to use interviews entry into public institutions of higher learning (IPTA), calling for it to be used selectively.
A university lecturer Dr Ting Chek Ming opined the idea was noble but not practical to be used across the broad spectrum of entrance into institutions of higher learning.
The former researcher at the University of Arkansas, USA, suggested interviews be utilised for professional courses such as medicine, dentistry and architecture as what was currently practised in the United States.
“The way I see it, it would be an awful waste of money and time if the measure is introduced as students from different places will provide different answers.
“Such evaluation method is too subjective to be used across the board,” Dr Ting told The Borneo Post yesterday when contacted.
He was reacting to Minister of Higher Education Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin’s statement that interviews
might be widely used in the selection of students for entry into IPTAs.
According to Khaled, the selection method for students into IPTAs currently used computers, whereby 90 per cent evaluation
was based on academic achievements and the balance of 10 per cent based on their co-curricular activities.
Khaled was quoted to have said currently two local IPTAs used interviews, namely, Universiti Sains Malaysia in the selection of its new students, while Universiti Malaya, in the selection of students for certain courses.
The minister reportedly said the interview method could help decide the suitability and interest of students towards the courses offered.
To this, Dr Ting, who specialised in Radar Remote Sensing, Antennas and Radiation, added: “It makes no sense to get students intending to pursue a degree in Business Administration for instance, to go through an interview session. Best to keep the status quo.”
ITA College of Nursing chief executive officer Datuk Seri Dr Benny Lee echoed Dr Ting’s view, saying that interviews should not be made absolute in the evaluation of students into IPTA.
Dr Lee reckoned that interviews should be used to enhance the process of evaluation.
He said this would enable students to introduce themselves and speak out on their grades.
“Students will have an opportunity to explain on those subjects where they did not achieve good grades. But it (interview) should not be made absolute as students’ grade must be taken into account as well,” Dr Lee stressed.
Educationalist and businessman Felician Teo, however, begged to differ, saying it would be a huge milestone for the country’s tertiary education if that happened as only the best students would be selected.
“To implement such a system would mean that entries to our universities have become very competitive and that there are students with extremely good grades who would not be able to gain entry due to limited places.
“In such a scenario, personal interviews would have to become a vital part of the screening process for varsity entry.
“On top of good grades and extra curricular involvement, good communication and social skills will have to feature prominently during interviews,” Teo rationalised.
He, however, opined that there is a long way to go before such a system gets implemented.
“Even in the UK or the US, only the Ivy league or Russell group universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, and so on, employ the interview process for student entry selection,” Teo concluded.