After so much fuss over the lack of a JPA-class (think open to all Malaysians) scholarship for postgraduate education and the recent launch of a PhD scholarship programme for public university lecturers, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Malaysian Government has decided to introduce the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholarship (a.k.a. King’s Scholarship) for those who want to pursue their Masters or PhD - regardless of their profession.

10 scholarships of this kind will be offered, with 5 for Masters courses and the other 5 for PhD courses. Surprisingly, the Government has decided to follow Singapore’s example and bond the scholarship’s recepients to work in Malaysia, but not in any particular company or government body (Singapore’s ASEAN Undergraduate Scholarship imposes the same requirement) - which is, of course, a good thing for the scholars involved.

One clear prerequisite of this scholarship is that you can’t be older than 30 years old when you apply. And as usual, undergraduate-level academic results will be a key determinant.

[News via Bernama]