I do find it upsetting, yes. The government has made it their focus to encourage youths to take up a Masters/PhD with their scholarship programs. However, the criteria for acceptance into these courses are the student's CGPA alone. A CGPA of above 3.0 entitles you to do your Masters, whereas a CGPA of above 3.5 entitles you to do your PhD. The problem with this system however is that due to the financial bonuses associated with furthering one's studies, potential candidates overlook the purpose of research degrees - to expand the horizons of knowledge, and relay that knowledge to the future generation. Add this to the lack of any research competency in the acceptance criteria, and we're breeding lecturers that have poor research skills, who merely teach out of obligation, not passion.

The inability to conduct quality research is a core problem as it directly conflicts with the government's initiative to boost research in local higher institutions of learning. Furthermore, the direct-PhD program lacks certain components, mainly an aptitude test in the general field of study, live training of teaching classes, and most importantly, the 3-year "regular" duration rushes candidates to work on novelty projects - research that only serves the purpose of boosting a university's journal repository. Some supervisors even go to the extent of encouraging their students to publish in paid journals, just so they can complete their research within the regular 3-year time frame. I blame this primarily on our failure to adopt the American approach to awarding PhDs, namely a 5-year course which incorporates a Masters degree and a compulsory written assessment on the general field of study.

As far as student complaints go, students mainly complain about two things - either their lecturers don't know their subject material well enough to teach it, or that their supervisors are unable to adequately supervise them, even at an undergraduate level.

P.S. I am a direct-to-PhD candidate, but I actively advise others not to follow this path. There's no merit in saving on a couple of years of study at the cost of losing out important training in research and teaching.