From our correspondence, I observe that TalentCorp is quite explicit about the fact that they don't search out employment for you as a scholar, and based on what I see, there really isn't a way in which you can be compelled to work somewhere because of the nature of the scholarship beyond their calling you for interviews for the five jobs that you are obligated to apply for in the public sector.

Essentially, if you're a scholar, >>read your contract properly to understand what you can or cannot do, and make sure that you have a logical justification for why you do what you do, and that you have a paper trail documentation of correspondences with your scholarship agency and every single relevant stakeholder in your scholarship contract. <<

This post has been edited by Exoflare: Nov 26 2017, 12:20 AM

Based on what I observe from my correspondences, you need to apply for STAR, which should not be a problem if you have successfully completed the reporting process with SPA - You actually need to complete the reporting process before you can apply for STAR, so yeah that's not going to be an issue.

On the other hand, you should not be fearful of STAR because that will provide you with a host of job opportunities, and you will not be *compelled* to take a job that you do not want in Malaysia in any scenario. Although STAR does not actively secure employment for scholars, TalentCorp has an incentive to ensure that you stay in Malaysia, has an incentive to ensure that you are gainfully employed, and will probably make you ask yourself at some point what will happen if you work with a company locally but are posted overseas, or would like to work on contract or start a company amongst other things because you recognise that certain skills that you possess from your training cannot be put into the market otherwise.

The latter part of this line of thinking is something that I am presently trying to investigate.

Seems like it's the same deal for me. Are you JPA Ivy League dan Setara, or one of the bursary kids?