In conjunction with the Tunku Abdul Rahman Scholarship (BTAR) application opening for this year, I recently felt called upon to reflect on my own experience as a former BTAR scholarship holder. BTAR is a full scholarship offered to full-time Bachelor’s degree students in Malaysia who are able to demonstrate leadership potential through a rigorous selection process. In my time, it was one of the few scholarships in Malaysia that was purely merit-based that would accept even students from affluent backgrounds. Once you receive the scholarship, you find that one of its defining characteristics was its leadership camps, which enabled the scholarship holders to build close relationships with each other throughout the duration of their study. 

In recent years, BTAR has shifted its focus to target high potential and talented students especially from lower income families (the B40), which has led me to reflect on how scholarships can best get their return of investment (ROI). Before I dive further into this, I feel it is important to first share my own personal background and what having a scholarship has done for me.

The effects of this scholarship was easily one of the most influential (if not the most influential) things that has shaped my worldview and how I interact with people and the society. It made me who I am today (though if in your opinion that’s not a good outcome, don’t hold it against the scholarship please). Thanks to the leadership camps mentioned earlier, to this day, some of my closest friends are those I had met through this scholarship. 

Compared to many countries I have been to, I can say that Malaysia is blessed with many scholarship opportunities for students. As an undergraduate, I remember going through newspapers, magazines and articles, and scanning billboards at my university, to find scholarships for my field of study (legal studies). I applied to nearly all of these scholarships back then. Yet time and time again, my application was rejected due to the class factor. I was naive and honest; I had declared my parents’ full income and was considered ineligible as their combined income placed us in the upper middle (upper M40)/top 20 (T20) income bracket at the time. It didn’t help that my parents at the time also didn’t support the idea of me applying for scholarships, saying that we could afford it. To this day, I also credit the fact that I didn’t receive any other scholarship offers due to a lack of their blessing. I suppose back then even they only thought that scholarships play the role of just being financial aid. Neither they nor I realised back then what having a scholarship could do to change one’s worldview.

My perspective changed when I was granted the BTAR scholarship. YTAR had organised a leadership camp for their BTAR Scholars (aptly called Tunku Scholars) at my parents’  training centre where I was helping out part-time. When I learned that it was a merit-based scholarship, with my parents’ blessing, I rushed to apply and was given a place after a very stringent selection process, which involved fighting with university administrators (as only universities could recommend your application at the time), multiple interviews, a selection camp, performing stand up comedy to show my potential, and more.

I did not realise what getting the BTAR scholarship would mean to me. But in the end, the scholarship turned out to be more than just ‘financial aid’. It became a place where I was able to befriend those  from the B40 and lower M40 groups. For the first time, I saw how some friends did business and worked part-time to buy things they wanted. I saw how some friends used the scholarship money to help their families. To some, the scholarship money was the only money they had to survive university life. If I planned to hang out with them, I also began to recognise the need to consider whether I can pay for the entire group to ensure everyone can join. 

You see, when I was younger, I could not see past the privilege.  I did not understand that when I scored an ‘A’ in  my SPM, it was thanks to the fact that I had the support of private tuition, time to focus on my studies, access to supplementary materials, and the privilege to go to school on a regular basis without any worries or added responsibilities. 

My exposure to the scholarship made me realise that a student from a lower income family would not have those advantages. He/she would have, at best, public group tuition. This student might be forced to help their families earn income, might not have the necessary basic books, etc. In such a scenario, my  ‘A’ is not ‘worth’ as much as his/her ‘B’ . I was basically an entitled middle-child brat who was seeking independence and could not see past the fact that my privileges had got me ahead. 

To be quite honest, at the time, the system that did not grant scholarships to the upper M40/T20 validated this frame of mind that I once had in the past. For the first time, I was able to see past the privilege. I began to care about these friends of mine, and I felt called upon to make a change, however small, in my own capacity.

What is the point of this story, you may ask? My experience with BTAR has taught me that when it comes to ROI in scholarships, it is not just about ‘providing aid’. It goes deeper than that. And so, I want to advance two main ideas here before I discuss what can be done to get the best ROI for scholarships:

1. A worthy B40 student with grit who is given a scholarship is like a tiger given wings.

A B40 student who can produce great results and is active in society or at the very least, who has the potential to be so despite the challenges of his/her background, deserves a scholarship. It is the fastest way for them, and later their families, to be alleviated from their B40 status. 

Let’s be clear: they don’t have to be this person yet. They merely need to have the potential to do so.

These kids just need to have the potential to want a better life for themselves.

A lot of them are resourceful – they need to be, to survive and thrive. They have grit and perseverance. They see problems everywhere in their surroundings, and for the first time, they are the ones that opened my eyes to these problems of lack of opportunities and personal circumstances limiting one’s potential.

A B40 student who receives a scholarship is less likely to break their bond. If it’s talent retention you seek, they are your best bet. Their lack of resources make them unable to seek opportunities elsewhere, unlike your M40/T20 scholars who may have families with resources to help them break the bond. Moreover, they often value the opportunity more than anyone else. They work harder, they strive harder, and they recognise the scholarship as the lifeline that it is to change their lives.

If you just want a story where a person goes from a bad situation to an ‘OK’ situation, you can end your scholarship planning with this first idea. But if you want them to fly/thrive, then you need to consider the next idea.

2. The power of networking and the exposure of ideas outside your circle is one of the most life-changing experiences that can be given to a scholar, whether you come from a B40 or M40 or T20 family

I would argue that one of the biggest limiting factors for any student regardless of their income level is the limit of their exposure to the world, its different views/perspectives, and its opportunities. They are limited by their own social and family circles, whether it is B40, M40 or T20.

For instance, a B40 student may not even dream or know what to do to enter an ivy league university like Oxford University. Even something as simple as learning the idea of stock investing would not enter their minds unless they had a friend (most likely from a M40/T20 family) who has relatives who have done the same.

People often joke and say that straight A students end up working for the C students, but let’s think about this a little further. Let’s assume that these straight A students come from better-off families who can afford the tuition and support for them to focus on their studies, as I was. These students, like me, were raised in such comforts that made us blind to problems around us. Yet for lower income students who had to juggle their studies with working and helping their families, for instance, they see problems everywhere. Problems that require business solutions.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that these “C” students are often the ones that end up becoming business leaders and solution providers? Yet not all these students will know how to monetise and grow a business without the right exposure and network. Often, it is their M40 and T20 friends who come from families that are entrepreneurs that can help them see the potential of their ideas.

On the flipside, for an M40/T20 student, while they may have access to better opportunities, they have a more limiting view on world perspectives if they do not mix with people of diverse economic backgrounds. They may end up thinking everyone is the same and goes through the same things; and in extreme cases, they may form opinions like “poor people just don’t work hard enough”. A possible example of this is perhaps the criticism level to urbanites and the so-called Bangsar Bubble in recent  years.

The scary part of all this is that these individuals are more likely to go on to hold traditional corporate jobs and leadership positions in the government. Their family backgrounds, i.e. their privilege gives them a head start to secure such influential working level positions.

It is these same people who will go on to make policies and decisions on poverty alleviation and inequality policies, most without even having the exposure to what life is like to those who face the situation in their everyday lives.  

In a world where inequality is ever rising, it’s my worry that education will not be enough to address the inequality. Moreover, the people who are making new policies probably don’t have the experience or the empathy to get it right.

But I digress. The conclusion to this idea is that what most students need today is access to networking groups to give them exposure to opportunities; to rise as far as their effort will take them, or access perspectives that they would not normally be exposed to. They would be far better human beings from this advantage than any training anyone can provide them.

It is for this reason that I would argue a very non-conventional position: most if not all scholarships need to have a mixture of recipients from different economic backgrounds. Now with these two ideas in mind, if you are planning to give out scholarships, determining the right ratio depends on the objective you want to achieve with your scholarship. 

Based on my observation, there are generally three objectives that drive governments, businesses or NGOs to provide scholarships. Below, I explain the ratios of which to be adjusted based on the strategic aims of the scholarship.

Objective 1: Poverty alleviation. 

Scholarships that focus on low income groups such as the B40 often carry the goal of alleviating poverty. Or, they give scholarships to provide life-changing opportunities to individuals who have the potential to turn their lives around and break the cycle of poverty in their own capacity. Some scholarships that carry this objective try to design robust programmes that help build students’ soft skills. Students are given opportunities to be linked up to prestigious universities and perhaps even gain exposure to conferences, workshops and networking events among others. 

On the surface, this seems like a good start. Any kind of intervention is better than just providing money and hoping the students are able to figure out how to get out of poverty by themselves. Yet, in my opinion, unless these interventions are super robust, these scholarships act as a flimsy bandage to a very large wound. If you ask me, I feel it is equally as important to perhaps have 10% to 20% of the recipients from at least the M40 group. Poverty alleviation is a huge issue, and these students need exposure and networks. They need to see what life can be like when they climb the financial ladder, and they need the support and network of their friends to provide them with the opportunities they need.

There are scholarships that of course try to do this exposure via a mentoring programme. However,  even if they have mentoring programmes, all you need to do is to ask yourself – in all the mentoring programmes you have conducted or were a part of, what was the success rate? How many times did these students even talk to their mentors beyond what was mandatory?

As much as mentoring programmes and workshops are helpful, it does not open their eyes to see what others are pursuing. Often, they also don’t know what to do, where to start, or even what they need to break the cycle. Having peers that provide them that image of the ideal, as well as how to get there, is a great way to ensure they are in an environment that will constantly push them to reach greater heights.

Objective 2: Talent management. 

A number of scholarships are also issued to hone talents that will be absorbed into the company upon graduation. The bigger companies all over Malaysia would practise this as part of a longer recruitment process. The scholarships often come with a bond of service for the company for a number of years once a student graduates. Government-linked companies (GLCs), such as PETRONAS Maybank, and CIMB also do this, but there tends to be a mixture with the first objective mentioned above given their partially social nature. 

For this objective, some sources have found giving scholarships to the B40 to be appealing, simply because these students often truly value the opportunity given. They are also less likely to sever bonds as they are financially unable to repay the scholarship. Yet, depending on what roles you plan to groom them to take up, this also, in my opinion, needs a good mix of students from different economic backgrounds. Ideally, 20% to 30% of the recipients should be from the M40 or T20 groups. 

You must remember that these talent management programmes are also a form of brand building to develop a perception of your organisation entity and the people associated with it.

On one hand, the B40 may turn out to be your most loyal employees. Yet on the other, one cannot deny the many advantages of grooming those who may have the network and contacts to benefit the company further.

Objective 3: Leadership makers. 

Some scholarships, like the BTAR that I was granted, are given to develop and shape leaders of tomorrow. This type of scholarship often values networking and extracurricular activities and opportunities to hone a student’s soft skills and professional skills so that they can excel in their own fields of study and become great leaders. These are scholarships that go beyond the typical corporate or poverty alleviation agenda and hence are a bit more special and rare in nature. 

To me, for this type of scholarship especially, it is crucial to have closer to a 50:50 mix between the lower income with the middle and upper income group of students. 

If we want privileged students to step up and help those in need, making sure they have friends in need is a great way to build that sense of responsibility within them, as what I had experienced.

B40 students make great leaders, but great ideas need a strong platform to grow. Knowing what grants to apply for, what opportunities they can reap, who they can talk to and even how to begin implementing and working on their ideas all require a certain exposure that I don’t believe scholarships and universities are able to provide as these needs are very individualistic. By having friends from privileged backgrounds, they gain this and the privileged students who now have friends from lower income backgrounds also gain from exposure to their grit and perspectives.  

To this day, a lot of my world view has been shaped by the fact that I have friends of all income brackets that have helped me temper my perspective on issues. I have also watched friends who were raised in primarily salaried families dive into entrepreneurship and business startups after seeing the peers from the scholarship do the same, or even from working with them before venturing on their own.

I remember spending whole afternoons just talking about ideas with my BTAR friends during my university days. It is these long conversations that truly allowed me to learn and gain an awareness to see past my privilege and make me feel responsible to give back. It is  these conversations with friends (emphasis on friends and not mentors) that helped plant the seed.  How can you ever attempt to understand and empathise with a particular issue if you don’t have friends who are going through that situation? 

In the end, I believe that there is a lot of room for thought and reflection with scholarships and it all goes back to the objective we want to achieve. While there might be some hybrid nature between the three objectives, it goes back to readjusting the right ratios. The last thing we want is for students to graduate and disappear, never to provide the ROI that scholarships ultimately hope for. 

We just need to remember; we cannot simply assume that providing the B40 with scholarships will turn their lives around – they won’t be able to go as far as they can without exposure to the opportunities to discover things they should expose themselves into, skills they should hone, and networks they should build. Likewise, to help the privileged see past their privilege, we need them to have deep conversations with those in need, and more importantly be friends with them. This is potentially the key to a more emphatic society where the ‘haves’ will be more willing to share with the ‘have nots’. 

So think back to what you really want to achieve with the scholarships you provide, and make sure the selection process and ongoing interventions reflect that.

Final note and a shameless plug for my old scholarship: for those eligible, please do apply for it here at https://www.yayasantar.org.my/apply/