Compared with other national pre-university programmes available in Malaysia, the Malaysian Matriculation programme is hugely popular. Here are some reasons why it’s so popular and why you should consider this programme. The first being that matrikulasi is extremely affordable. All you need to pay is the registration fee, which is only RM580 for the Science and Technical stream, and RM530 for the Accounting stream. All the other costs are subsidised by the government and best of all, you will also receive a generous stipend every semester. Matrikulasi also gives you a better edge in getting your desired degree at public universities. Apart from having a comprehensive list of public university degrees to choose upon completion, Matrikulasi students also tend to have a better edge in landing their desired courses compared to their STPM peers. Not only will you be graduating earlier from Matriculation compared to your friends in STPM, you will also be handling toned-down syllabuses for your subjects compared to STPM. Also, matrikulasi gives you wide selections for your degree.Compared to other short pre-university courses like Asasi, Matrikulasi gives you a broader selection of courses that you can choose later on for your public university application. For example, if you are in Science stream, you can opt for a range of courses from Medicine to Engineering and even IT. For Accounting stream, you can apply for anything from Law and Economics to Human Resource Management. It is also to be noted that Matrikulasi is recognised by selected institutions overseas.Although the majority of Matrikulasi students pursue degrees in local public universities, there are selected universities abroad that recognise the local matriculation qualification. As stated by our Deputy Education Minister, P. Kamalanathan, there were 227 local matriculation graduates in 2014 who were pursuing their tertiary studies overseas. The Malaysian Matriculation programme is recognised and accepted by foreign countries like Indonesia, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, among others.