PUTRAJAYA JULY 16: The government has allocated RM185.7 million that benefits 386,142 students for three semesters in 20 public universities nationwide as a result of the reduction in study fees for one year throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministry of Higher Education in its statement said, after considering the parents and students’ problems who had been badly affected by the pandemic, the Higher Education Department had circulated a letter dated March 22, 2021 requesting fee reduction for Semester Two Academic Session 2019/2020 for all Malaysian students.
The statement added, to lessen the burden of students, public universities had implemented several initiatives including the reduction of service fee, hostel fee, convocation fee and college activities’ fee between 10 to 35 per cent starting from Semester Two Academic Session 2019/2020 until today.
“The request for the fee reduction had incurred a provision of RM75 million and out of which RM20 million was the additional government’s provision and RM55 million using the public universities’ internal sources.
“For the First Semester Academic Session 2020/2021, the reduction in fees amounting RM70.2 million has been granted by the public universities.
However, for the Second Academic Session 2020/2021, the reduction amounting RM40.5 million had also been given,” the statement added.
The statement said, the several steps taken are a clear proof that the governmentis very alert and concern on the financial problems faced by both the parents and the students.
“The government was with the opinion that the reduction fee rates was reasonable as 20 public universities had to bear the high operational costs using their internal sources’ provisions following the drop in income via student’s fees besides a reduction in management provisions from the government following the COVID-19 pandemic that is still happening now.-Malaysia WorldNews
