Dato' Seri Ong Tee Keat said the official recognition by the Australian university would give..........

Australian varsity accepts

By TAN EE LOO
educate@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Another foreign university has recognised the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) as an entry qualification for tertiary education.

Australia’s University of Southern Queensland (USQ) director of undergraduate studies Dr Emory McLendon, in a letter confirming this recently, said UEC-Senior Middle Level (UEC-SML) was recognised by its Faculty of Business as an entry qualification equivalent to the GCE A-Levels.

Pandan MP Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said the official recognition by the Australian university would give UEC holders more study options.

“There are some universities that recognise UEC. However, these universities still require UEC holders to sit for an entry test.“In this case, admission to USQ will be based on the UEC results and the applicants do not need to sit for any entry test,” he told a press conference at his service centre here yesterday.

According to the university’s website, UEC-SML holders must have at least six subjects with a score of B5 or better in at least five of these subjects (cannot include more than one of Chinese Language or Bahasa Malaysia) to gain entry into the undergraduate studies.Ong, who is the patron of Higher Opportunities for Private Education (HOPE), said the recognition by the Australian university was a result of hard work between USQ and HOPE, an education initiative of Yayasan Bakti Nusa Malaysia.

He said HOPE would continue to explore possibilities to gain recognition for the UEC-SML qualification by universities in the Commonwealth countries.UEC is conducted by Chinese independent schools and cannot be used as entry qualification for Malaysian public institutions of higher learning.

United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia deputy chairman Chow Siew Hon said there were now over 600 local and foreign universities that recognise and accept UEC as entry qualification.