PETALING JAYA: Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) has called out higher education minister Khaled Nordin for disregarding students affected by the university’s zero-balance policy.
“His agreement with the policy for settling the university’s students’ debts shows his lack of sympathy for the students’ hardships in paying their fees,” said the student body in a statement today.
Khaled had come to the defence of the zero-balance policy yesterday, saying the university believed some students were financially capable of paying their fees but were intentionally not doing so.
“In 2021, UM students’ debt went up by RM10.21 million to RM37.34 million. This surged to RM51.2 million as of June 2023,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.
“This is a very large amount considering the decrease in management grants and other revenue, including revenue from tuition fees, and the increase in operational costs.
“If no intervention is carried out, students’ debt will only continue to increase and this could affect the university’s operations.”
Before the new policy, students were allowed to settle their fees just before taking their examinations, instead of before course registration, which allowed them to look for methods to settle their fees through part-time jobs or scholarships.
Last month, UM said fewer than 4% of the students would be affected by the policy, which requires them to settle their fees in full to activate new course registrations.
“Even if the claim that a small percentage of students would be affected by the policy is true, they should not be abandoned and should be given alternatives, which UM has not publicly announced,” Umany said.
It said Khaled had chosen UM’s financial advancement over the students’ ease of education, and had failed to fulfil his responsibility to future generations.
“Umany wishes to restate its stance that the zero-balance policy must be abolished, for equal rights to education that our future successors of this country deserve, an educational system that does not discriminate against the poor, and steadier educational pathways that should be guaranteed by the government,” it said.
