Selayang MP William Leong said the incident, which he described as “highly irregular”, must be immediately resolved.

He told FMT it was odd that the students were axed from the programme with just months to go before graduation.

“There appears to be something irregular here. Obviously, you cannot change goalposts in the middle of the course. That is something that should be immediately investigated.

“Corrective action should be taken. And from the stories we have seen and heard so far, something is not right,” he said.

The 52 students were part of a larger 86-student group pursuing their postgraduate diploma in public administration at the Institute of Public Administration, or Intan.

They claim they were dismissed from the programme after failing to meet the new passing grade, set just three days before they were told to leave.

The group would have become administrative and diplomatic officers, a higher salaried rank, upon graduation.

Leong said it was too early to say if his caucus could investigate the matter pending the setting of terms of reference for his committee by the speaker of the house.

For the time being, he said, the Public Service Department (PSD) which runs Intan should explain why the group was let go with only three months left of their 10-month course.

The 52 students were scheduled to graduate on Feb 7 next year. They had already covered 80% of the course with only three modules left to go.

They claimed they received letters on Nov 30, informing them that they had failed to meet the passing grade in the personality or “sahsiah” component for commitment and discipline.

They alleged that Intan pushed the passing grade for the component from B to A- just a few days before they were told to leave.

FMT has contacted Intan and the PSD for comment and is awaiting their response.