USM admissions bungle 2009

After the elation of having been selected as the first Apex University in the country (accelerated programme for excellence), USM's bungle in the 2009 admissions is really like falling face down on the apex of a turd!

Surely, this being the first opportunity for direct intake by a University, rather than by Big Brother UPU, some sort of effort should have been made to ensure no fouls ups?

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/National/2511523/Article/index_html

Statements from the Deputy Vice Chancellor of USM saying "they will get to the bottom of this", "technical error" and "sorry" doesn't really cut it.

The resposibilty lies solidly on the shoulders of the Vice Chancellor as this admissions exercise is a major milestone in higher education autonomy. The Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs comes in as a close second, and the Registrar, the third in line, for the administrative execution, or in this case mis-execution.

How does an Apex university mix-up the figures 3,599 and 8,173 ? Close supervision and stringent SOP were obviously not instituted. Discovery of the error only some 24 hours later is nothing short of incompetence! Did none of the afore-mentioned executives bother to check the uploaded list? Obviously not.

In ISO terms this is a major non-compliance or NC of the biggest kind. I wonder if this resonates with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA)?

Of course it is human error! Its not an act of God, turbulence or a Tsunami!! It is plain old sloppy work which is becoming the norm...

And what of the 4574 students and concerned parents?

Hey Malaysia, wake up lah! Get with the program man!