UTM to stop diploma courses from June

JOHOR BARU: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) will stop its intake of candidates for full time diploma courses starting June this year.
UTM vice chancellor professor Dr Rose Alinda Alias (Academic and international) said while students who are pursuing their full time diploma courses now will complete their programmes within three years, the university will no longer take in SPM students for its full time diploma courses for session 2015/2016.
This decision, she added, was made by the UTM's Senat Council because its aim is now to focus on more post-graduate courses and to become a research university.
At present it has about 8,500 diploma students together with its alliance colleges nationwide of whom some are part-time candidates.
UTM Kuala Lumpur campus is the one which runs full time diploma courses since 1970s and has has about 1,703 diploma students.
This campus is also earmarked to be developed into a post-graduate learning institution in the near future.
Asked on why the move, Rose Alinda said, it was because most of the diploma course lecturers have retired and they face manpower shortage.
"Another factor is the high cost of investment for the new laboratories," she added.
Rose Alinda said the university allocates between RM5 million to RM10 million a year for diploma studies which is approximately about 10 % of the University's budget.
She also said that they will not retrench lecturers with the new move.