College students protest over lack of accreditation for diploma

They can't pursue a degree course or find jobs as a result, they claim.

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 60 former students from Technology Park Malaysia College (TPMC) protested today at the campus in Bukit Jalil here over accreditation for their biomedical science course.

They were dissatisfied with the explanation given by TPM Corporation (TPM) despite a three-hour-long meeting.

They said the college had failed to solve the problem of accreditation for their course.

The students claimed the college had misled them that their diploma programme in biomedical science had been accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA).

Nuhaniza Abdul Halim, who had registered in TPMC in 2011 for the diploma, said the course was new at the time.

She told FMT they only noticed the lack of accreditation when they received their official certificates during their convocation ceremony.

“The official certificates did not have the MQA stamp, just the TPMC college stamp,” she said.

The lack of MQA accreditation had made it impossible for them to pursue a degree course or to find jobs in her field, she added.

TPM general manager Zulkifli Fitri Ismail said the students were briefed when they entered college that the biomedical science course was only partially accredited.

He said this was also stated in writing on the brochure as well as in their offer letters.

“TPM college was granted provisional accreditation from Oct 1, 2009 to March 31, 2012. This was later extended to Aug 26, 2015.”

He said MQA rejected the college’s application for full accreditation for the course in February 2015 but it continued providing training for the course and other programmes.

He said Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) took over the college in 2015 as a 75% shareholder and had also appealed to MQA for full accreditation for the biomedical course.

“TPM college is independently managed by Mara Corp and as such the biomedical science programme issue should be addressed by them.

“It was up to Mara now to solve this matter.”

Several hundred students are believed to have taken up the two-and-half-year biomedical course, which cost them RM20,000.

Student Ervina Ezureen Amir Hassan expressed her frustration over this matter, saying it had been approaching those in charge for a solution for the past four years.

“We can’t get jobs for what we studied, neither can we further our studies.”

Some frustrated students had now switched to pursuing other recognised courses elsewhere.

Ervina noted that some of them were barred from travelling overseas as they haven’t been able to pay their National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans as they had difficulty finding jobs. -FMT