Form 6, matriculation categorised as higher education from this year

The move will officially place both groups of students under the higher education category.

20 Jan 2026 04:41pm

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim officiated the launch of the National Education Plan (RPN) 2026–2035 at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) today. Photo by Bernama

PUTRAJAYA - The Higher Education Ministry (MOHE) will fully take over the pre-university education system involving Form Six and matriculation programmes starting this year, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He said the move will officially place both groups of students under the higher education category.

"Starting this year, the Higher Education Ministry will take over the entire pre-university education system - Form Six and matriculation.

"So Form Six and matriculation students are no longer school students. They are now categorised under higher education,” he said when speaking at the launch of the National Education Blueprint (RPN) 2026-2035 here today.

At the same time, Anwar said the government is also addressing the annual controversy over limited entry opportunities into preferred courses, particularly among students from minority communities who achieve excellent results but face constraints due to limited places.

To ensure fairness of opportunity, the Prime Minister said the government has asked universities to add 1,500 new places in popular courses.

"Understanding this problem, I have asked universities to increase places in these preferred courses by 1,500 from the current figure,” he said.

Following further discussions, Anwar said universities agreed to add another 1,500 places covering fields such as law, accounting, finance and banking, Islamic finance, artificial intelligence (AI), economics, Bahasa Melayu, English language, communication, media studies, data science, data analytics and computer science.

"We are adding another 1,500 places, which means a total of 3,000 additional places this year,” he said.

In addition, to ease concerns among students, Anwar said the government will continue to prioritise foundation and matriculation students as usual, while assurances have also been given to high-performing Form Six (STPM) students.

"We have also given assurances that high-achieving Form Six STPM students will be given priority for university placement, particularly those with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 4.0.

"If the CGPA is 4.0, universities will make every effort to offer a place, although in some cases the choice of course will depend on the university’s capacity,” he said. - BERNAMA