MARA nationwide will appoint full-time wardens from among former military personnel beginning Jan 1, 2027, following positive results from a pilot programme aimed at strengthening discipline and hostel safety.
MARA chairman Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the decision followed the MARA Council’s review of an effectiveness study on the appointment of external full-time wardens at MRSM Besut and MRSM Balik Pulau.
According to Asyraf, the study found that the initiative had improved student discipline and physical security at hostels while reducing incidents of bullying and vandalism.
He said students, parents and administrators responded positively to the presence of the former military personnel, with more frequent and systematic monitoring helping to reduce opportunities for misconduct.
MARA had earlier said the programme would initially be rolled out at 10 MRSM before being expanded to all 58 institutions nationwide from January 2027, with four full-time wardens planned for each MRSM.
Asyraf said the pilot findings also showed that students felt safer and became more disciplined in areas including time management, personal appearance, etiquette and respect.
The initiative is also intended to ease the workload of teachers who previously had to take on additional warden duties alongside their teaching responsibilities.
Asyraf said teachers had received an allowance of RM300 a month for warden duties, but their primary responsibilities meant it was unrealistic to expect them to conduct continuous rounds, particularly late at night and in the early morning when bullying and other misconduct could occur.
The pilot programme involving former military personnel was introduced at MRSM Besut and MRSM Balik Pulau before MARA began progressively expanding the model. MARA had said the initiative was intended both to strengthen student supervision and reduce the burden on teachers.
Following the encouraging findings, 10 MRSM have employed full-time wardens from among military veterans since July, with Asyraf saying preliminary results showed a sharp reduction in disciplinary cases.
He said bullying cases during the pilot were reported to have fallen to almost zero.
Asyraf has also asked Universiti Putra Malaysia to work with MARA on training modules for the new wardens and to extend its research to address psychological and non-physical forms of bullying more comprehensively.
MARA began physically assessing former military personnel for the full-time warden posts earlier this year, including fitness tests and interviews, ahead of the first appointments from July.
