KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — About 3,000 or five per cent out of 60,000 university students that took critical science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) switch their courses yearly, Utusan Malaysia reported today.

Director of the Strategic and Risk Management Office of Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Assoc Prof Nik Hisyamudin Muhd Nor said this issue is mostly in programmes that involve high financial costs as students are often forced to change courses if they fail to get any sponsorship.

"We have seen changes from technical to non-technical courses, but they have not reached a worrying level. But when there are changes, it would affect the relevant industries, as demands for [graduates from] such courses are high.

"What's more, it is harder to get students into technical programmes compared to those in information technology, as they are more confident in getting a job with the latter," he was quoted saying.

According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Higher Education, in 2021, a total of 181,901 students were recorded for admission at public universities nationwide.

Of these, science, mathematics and computer science fields recorded 23,262 students.

Engineering, manufacturing and construction recorded 37,020 students and 8,031 for health and welfare.

President of the National Student Consultative Council (MPPK), Wan Amsyar Hadie Wan Mahadi said the students may pick the wrong courses if they were not given any exposure to the programmes and subjects.

"The options are limited for them, whether to change to any courses that have vacancies or to start from scratch by reapplying to another university. So it is not right to encourage such a thing as those critical courses are important for the industries and the country.

"If the number of students in such courses decreases, this will result in a shortage of manpower because the industry has an annual target," he reportedly said.

He said this has resulted in students who switched would end up taking social science, literature and humanities, or communications programmes in order to just graduate, as those courses would usually have vacancies.

Subsequently, those courses were seen as a "dumping ground" for those who "failed" in the technical course, he said.