The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Ibrahim, today presented the 2026 Yang di-Pertuan Agong Scholarship (BYDPA) to 14 outstanding recipients at a ceremony held at Istana Negara.
The prestigious scholarship was awarded to seven Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidates and seven Master’s by Research students. Four recipients will pursue their studies at leading overseas universities, while the remaining 10 will continue their education at local research universities.
Public Service Department (JPA) director-general Tan Sri Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz said the BYDPA is among the most prestigious scholarships in Malaysia and offers the highest level of government sponsorship.
He added that 13 of the 14 recipients attended the ceremony, while one recipient, Waywen Loh Chang Yuan, was already at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
He expressed hope that the scholars would return to serve the nation in their respective fields, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), science and artificial intelligence (AI), adding that JPA would closely monitor their academic progress to ensure timely completion of their studies.
Introduced in 2006, the BYDPA, also known as the King’s Scholarship, is JPA’s most prestigious scholarship programme.
Since its inception, it has sponsored 239 Malaysians, comprising 124 PhD candidates and 115 Master’s by Research students, across strategic fields including STEM, economics, law, Islamic finance and AI.
