SIBU, Oct 29- Universiti Teknologi Sarawak now has a total of over 4,200 students compared to only around 1,800 students three years ago.

Sarawak Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development, Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee, said the significant increase in the number of students was contributed by the implementation of bursaries of 50 to 80 percent of tuition fees at the university.

According to him, the effort to introduce the bursary gave more people the opportunity to study at the university because the higher education institution was built using government funds.

" I can tell you this university, we don't have quota that how many Chinese must go in, and how many Bumiputera's must go in," Dr Annuar Rapaee added.

"We do not think, it is a way forward for a university to develop for a talent to be develop on our country. We want to give a fair equal opportunities for each and everyone of the Sarawakian," he said.

He was speaking at the closing of 'The I C Design Make-A-Thon 2024, organized by the Sarawak Semiconductor Design held at UTS here.

After the introduction of Bursary for fees at UTS, the Sarawak state government started thinking about how to provide such opportunities to all students, hence, the state government plans to implement free education for all STEM-related programmes at Sarawak-owned universities starting in 2026.

The three-day event were attended by 10 groups, including a total of 40 students from UTS and 10 local secondary schools.

The Electocak team was crowned the winner of the competition and will go to Kuching for the finals on November 3.

This competition aims to promote the semiconductor industry, especially integrated circuit (IC) design and also promote STEM education in schools and universities.