PETALING JAYA: Vice-chancellors of public higher educational institutions (IPTA) have met Higher Education director-general Prof Datuk Seri Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak recently to discuss reducing fees for students, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Although the Higher Education Ministry has yet to make an official announcement, a fee reduction is likely for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) students.
UKM vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor said the university was looking into reducing fees and should be making a decision very soon.
“Reducing the fees will impact the financial situation of UKM but the most important thing now is for us to be fair to our students.
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya’s (UM) student union has submitted a petition to UM vice-chancellor Datuk Dr Abdul Rahim Hashim on Wednesday to reduce 25% or RM250 of tuition fees.
The petition, which started on June 1 and has garnered 23,446 signatures to date, was received by Abdul Rahim’s special officer Mohd Khairi Md Jaafar.
UM student union president Muhammad Haziq Azfar Ishak said it would like RM250 or 25% to be reduced from students’ total tuition fees, which come up to slightly over RM1,000 each semester depending on the faculty.
He said the RM250 was for facilities such as sporting facilities, utility bills, library, the printing of exam papers and others, which were not utilised at all by students since the movement control order (MCO) was implemented on March 18.
“While RM250 seems like a small amount of money to some people, it is really precious to our student population, 60% of whom are from the B40 group.
“Some students survive on RM300 per semester, while RM250 is what some others spend on two to three months worth of meals, ” he said.
UKM student union spokesperson Yillson Yanggun shared the same sentiment.
“We (UKM Student Union) already had a meeting with the university’s management last week in the hope that RM250 for various services and facilities can be discounted from our tuition fees, ” said Yillson.
Prof Mohamed Mustafa has said that cheaper fees were possible for IPTA students.
However, he said the ministry needed to consider the institutions’ financial sustainability and who would be compensating the losses incurred by IPTAs should fees be reduced.
He added that discussions were already underway with the vice-chancellors of IPTAs, and that they would present their findings to Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad.
“We will make an announcement on the matter soon after looking into all aspects, ” he said, adding that this did not mean a reduction in fees was confirmed.
Bernama reported on June 1 that there were calls by parents and students to have the fees lowered.
This is because students are not fully utilising the facilities on campus since most have returned to their hometowns when campuses were shut down due to the MCO.
-The Star