What Are Your Chances When Applying for UPU? The Official UPU 2018/19 Statistics Have The Answer.

As with every UPU intake, there are numerous cases of students being up in arms due to being rejected from courses, despite possessing outstanding results. While many may point to bias and a lack of transparency, the truth of the matter is, with so many applications to consider, so just have to be rejected. These complaints however haven’t fallen on deaf ears, and the Ministry of Education (MoE) have recently released the official numbers for this year’s UPU intake. Read on to find out what a student’s chances are based on their qualification, applied courses and more.

For the academic session of 2018/19, around 231,168 students were successful in obtaining a place in public universities (UA), polytechnics, community colleges and ILKAs in various fields across the country. A total of 58,383 students who applied did so at the level of STPM/Setaraf. 23,362 of these students applied to science courses with a 96.9% success rate, while 34,134 applied to arts courses with a surprisingly lower 74.4% success rate.  

A total of 213,000 applications were SPM candidates, with 81,000 choosing the science stream and 72,000 being successful (88.89%). The remaining 129,000 students applied to the arts stream, with 110,000 snagging a place at a slightly lower 85.27% success rate.

An eye-opening statistic that was obtained was that the total applications and the total successful applications for the science stream has dropped when compared to the arts stream for the past 3 years, with the 2018/19 session seeing the overall number of courses offered split - 52% for arts and 48% for the sciences.

The 5 most popular bachelor’s degree programmes for the science stream were Biomedical (Bioperubatan), Forensic Science (Sains Forensik), Nutrition (Pemakanan), Mathematical Science (Sains Matematik) and Dietetics (Dietetik), while the 5 most popular degree courses for the arts stream were Psychology, Syariah, Counselling (Kaunseling), Usuluddin (Al-Quran & Al-Hadith) and Human Resource Development (Pembangunan Sumber Manusia).For those more interested in diploma programmes, the 5 most popular courses for science stream diploma programmes were Nursing (Kejururawatan), Pharmacy (Farmasi), Sports Science (Sains Sukan), Computer Science (Sains Komputer) and Information Technology (Teknologi Maklumat). Popualr arts stream diploma courses include Early Childhood Education (Pendidikan Awal Kanak-Kanak), Business Studies (Pengajian Perniagaan), Culinary Arts (Seni Kulinari), Accounting (Perakaunan) and Business Administration (Pentadbiran Awam).In total, 983 bachelor’s degree programmes were offered across 20 public universities (UA) while 138 diploma programmes were offered by 13 public universities (UA) nationwide.