Sarawak FTES recipients free to work abroad as accepted offers reach 6,246
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Sarawak’s Free Tertiary Education Scheme (FTES) does not bind graduates to jobs in the state, Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Roland Sagah Wee Inn said on October 19.
Speaking to reporters after his ministerial winding-up speech at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly complex, he said recipients could pursue careers anywhere. The state hopes graduates will bring overseas experience home, but that hope is not an employment bond.
For families weighing an FTES offer, the distinction matters: accepting the education support does not, under the policy he described, require a graduate to take a Sarawak job. It is not a promise of employment, at home or abroad.
Sagah also told the assembly that 6,246 students had accepted FTES offers across four Sarawak-owned institutions as of September 30. They comprise 2,802 at Swinburne Sarawak, 2,031 at University of Technology Sarawak, 949 at Curtin Malaysia and 464 at i-CATS University College.
Of the students who accepted offers, 3,195 qualify for the annual RM15,000 living and accommodation stipend for eligible lower-income households. That support is not an automatic payment to all 6,246 students.
A separate intake figure tracks the 64 courses covered by the scheme: 3,491 new students in 2026, compared with 1,528 in 2025, an increase of 128.5 per cent. The course-intake total and the number accepting FTES offers measure different groups and should not be treated as interchangeable.
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