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Dapsy blasts unprecedented budget cut on tertiary education

DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) varsity affairs bureau director Leong Yu Sheng condemns Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for the unprecedented massive budget cut on tertiary education in two consecutive years, causing adverse cascading effects on public universities and students. Under the governance of Barisan Nasional and the leadership of the prime minister, universities were abandoned while our students were victimised in the end.

Sacrificing education quality in public universities

Prime Minister Najib resumed cutting the budget allocation for our public universities in Budget 2017 by 19.23 percent despite the various opposing voices towards the first budget cut in 2015 especially from National Council of Professors (MPN), academicians, student movement groups and the opposition parties.

The Malaysian Academic Association Congress (MAAC) held in mid-October had highlighted that the tight university budget forced some researchers to abandon their researches, minimisation of research lab activities, and greatly impacted the universities’ teaching and learning processes.

In early 2016, National Council of Professors CEO Professor Dr Raduan Che Rose also reported that 156, which is 33 percent of 507 contract professors aged between 61 and 70 years at public universities, did not have their contracts renewed due to budget cuts.

Public universities forced to restrain from more offerings

In order to cope with the budget cut of 16.5 percent in the 2016 Budget, public universities were forced to reduce their student intake from 93,522 (in 2014) to 85,703 (in 2015). The budget crunch in 2016 not only took away 7,819 new enrolments for our students, but also made the learning process less cost-effective.

The existing teaching facilities were underutilised while expansion projects were delayed making their total building cost to be higher when they are completed.

More students are to be burdened by heavier study loan debt than ever

The reduced enrollment and poor education quality of public universities due to financial constraint is pushing away students from entering public universities. In 2015, the number of new student intake in private universities rise from 50,584 (in 2014) to 103,733 (in 2015). In other words, the new student intake in private universities increased sharply by 105 percent and this means that more students are to be burdened by heavier study loan debt than ever.

Most of the students in private universities were forced to take up National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) study loans due to their costly tuition fees. In fact, PTPTN loans account for around 70 percent of the private universities’ income. Thus, it will not be wrong to say that our existing tertiary education system was designed to produce more and more graduates with heavier study loan debt.

Granting autonomy not an excuse to avoid responsibility

We also would like to express our disappointments towards the prime minister and his cabinet for their incorrect perception on university autonomy. University autonomy is crucial for academicians to uphold their academic freedom, determine their academic policies and have their own educational values free from government interference. It isn’t some excuse for the government to remove themselves from their financial responsibilities toward public institution.

Thus, Dapsy urges the Members of Parliament to vote against this second massive budget cut of RM 1.5 billion on tertiary education in Budget 2017 that could worsen our tertiary education system. The Budget 2017 submitted by the prime minister isn’t a budget to run the government, but a budget to benefit the party leaders and cronies of Barisan Nasional.


LEONG YU SHENG is DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) varsity affairs bureau director.

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