JPA Scholarship

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The JPA Scholarship is provided by Malaysia's Public Service Department (JPA) for SPM leavers to both local and overseas institutions every year. In 2009, 2,000 scholarships were offered to overseas universities^[1] and 10,000 scholarships were offered to local public and private universities/colleges.^[2]

1 Overview
2 Application Process
3 Evaluation Criteria
4 Scholarship Terms and Conditions
5 Application Tips
6 References

Overview

Main article: Course List (JPA Scholarship)

The courses offered are for those in critical fields and fields needed by the country. In 2009, these are: ^[3]

Medicine
Dentistry
Pharmacy
Veterinary Science
~~Actuarial Science~~ (Removed from the list since the year 2010)
Agricultural Science
Biotechnology
Engineering
Accountancy
Quantity Surveying
Computer Science/ Information Technology/ Information and Communication Technology
Applied Science (e.g. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, Geology)
Architecture
Town and District Planning
Economics
Tourism
Social Sciences
Islamic Economics/Islamic Banking/Islamic Finance
Humanities
Business Administration
Law

There are also separate schemes reserved for Bumiputera students

Program Akademik Jepun
Program Teknikal Jepun/Korea

The full list of countries available for each course is found here.

Application Process

There are three parts to applying : an initial application form, a group interview and an online aptitude test^[4].

The initial application form is online at http://esila.jpa.gov.my. There are three parts to the form - personal information, family information and academic details which also includes co-curricular activities.

Shortlisted candidates are then invited for a group interview. The interview covers a self introduction, discussion about current issues or events, and personal questions. There are 5 people in the group, and there will be some questions directed specifically to each candidate. In the discussion segment, the group will be given 2 to 5 minutes to prepare for it individually. Candidates in turn raise their hands before contributing a point, or elaborating on a previously mentioned point. The interview takes about 45 minutes and is conducted in both Bahasa Malaysia and English.^[4]

The online aptitude test consists of about 250 questions, divided into 4 sections, to be completed in 45 minutes^[4]. The four sections are:

Moral Reasoning
Course of Personal Interest
Current Ability
Career Ambition

Evaluation Criteria

In 2009, the students are evaluated on the based on the following criteria: ^[5]

75% for ones's SPM examination results
10% for co-curricular achievements
10% for financial need of the student
5% for performance in interview.

In the same year, the 2000 places allocated for overseas scholarship was distributed by:^[5]

20% solely based on merit
60% according to race
10% reserved East Malaysian students
10% of indigenous minorities, single parents, disabled and poor children

Scholarship Terms and Conditions

Requirements ^[3]

Only open to Malaysian citizens
Be aged 18 years (or 19 years if a transition student) and below
Minimum grade of A2 for Malay Language, History and Moral Education/Islam Education.
Must be of good health and free from any critical disease such as AIDS, Hepatitis, HIV, etc.

Value of Scholarship Awarded

For PILN, the scholarship covers for the fees and living costs of 1 or 2 years of pre-university education in Malaysia and 3 to 6 years of university education overseas. The bond may be up to ten years long, depending on the course.

Unsuccessful applicants for the PILN scholarship may be offered a scholarship for a local private university instead. This scholarship will pay for fees and living costs until foundation year, when students will be reassessed and only offered the continuation of scholarship to a Bachelor's Degree if certain conditions are met (CGPA > 3.5 and attendance > 90%)^[6]

The bond is to be served in the civil service.

Application Tips

DO NOT fake your parent's earnings, no matter how tempting it is for you to do so.^[7]
JPA only requires you to send in your co-curricular certificates of form 4 and 5 years.^[7]
Do your very best in your interviews. Be opinionated and polite. If you don't know the answer to a question, just admit that you do not know. Don't try to copy your groupmates' answer. Don't hog the discussion. Give eye contact. Smile in the interview. Sit up straight. Wish the interviewers "Good morning" and you may greet them with a firm handshake (only if they are guys). Thank them after the interview. Dress up in formal dressing. All these are simple etiquettes needed for interview, but it is surprising how most people forget about them. We Malaysians aren't really a polite bunch of people, are we?^[7]
For any actions that are required to be done online, please take note of the strict web browser requirements. There is a certain "psychology test" or something similar that could only be operated on Internet Explorer. There are reported occasions of applicants failing the test due to usage of an incompatible browser such as Mozilla Firefox, which causes the test to be unresponsive midway through.^[7]