{
  "id": 12820659,
  "title": "Govt to cover half of civil servants’ master’s, PhD costs",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/govt-to-cover-half-of-civil-servants-masters-phd-costs",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-08T07:59:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Malaysia Today",
    "slug": "free-malaysia-today",
    "url": "https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2026/10/08/govt-to-cover-half-of-civil-servants-master-s-phd-costs"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Malaysian government announced it will cover half the cost of master's and PhD degrees for civil servants through the Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning for Qualification (Apel.Q) programme. JPA director-general Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz stated that this initiative is one of the department's new efforts to offer public servants opportunities to enhance their academic qualifications using their work experience.\n\nThe Apel.Q programme aims to encourage public servants to improve their knowledge, skills, and competencies by leveraging their past work experience. Public servants who have served for many years would benefit from this initiative, as their work experience would be considered in their applications for higher education.\n\nThis programme, along with the federal training award and other forms of sponsorship, is part of the government's strategy to support public servants in enhancing their qualifications, as cited by Bernama at Dewan Tuanku Canselor, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, in Bachok today.",
  "summary": "JPA director-general Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz says the Apel.Q programme will benefit long-serving public servants.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Bernama",
        "title": "General : Govt To Cover Half Of Public Servants’ Master’s, PHD Costs Under APEL.Q - PSD DG",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/general-govt-to-cover-half-of-public-servantsa-mastera-s-phd-costs",
        "published": "2026-10-08T06:35:39.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Free Malaysia Today",
        "title": "Govt to cover half of civil servants’ master’s, PhD costs",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/govt-to-cover-half-of-civil-servants-masters-phd-costs-12824252",
        "published": "2026-10-08T07:59:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}