The National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) has backed down on its freeze on student loans to two Selangor government-run institutions.

It is learnt that Universiti Selangor (Unisel) was informed of this earlier today.

A state government source familiar with the matter said Unisel students can apply for the loans starting tonight.

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Meanwhile, a highly-ranked PTPTN source told Malaysiakini that the reversal also applies to another Selangor-owned institution Selangor International Islamic University College (Kuis).

Later in the evening, Unisel vice-chancellor Anuar Ahmad confirmed the reversal of the PTPTN loan freeze, saying that he had received an official letter on the matter after meeting PTPTN chief executive Agos Cholan this morning.

The letter confirmed that the education loans would be made available again, and was signed by a special officer from the Higher Education Ministry, said Anuar at a press conference this evening at Unisel.

The meeting this morning came after an appeal letter was submitted following an earlier meeting with Agos last week. Students should be able to apply for the loans again by tonight, he said.

Asked to confirm reports that several students had already left Unisel after failing to apply for the loans, he clarified that they had no records and could not confirm the matter, but added that they would happily welcome any such students back and help them continue their studies at Unisel.

“We would like to thank the Selangor government for its moral support in the situation. And thanks also to everybody else involved,” he said, expressing his appreciation for Unisel being able to continue its work.

At 3.30pm, Utusan Malaysia reported on its online portal that Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin, in confirming the reversal, said it was done after Unisel admitted it never intended to provide free education.

“Unisel admitted that PTPTN loans are important to the students. After considering this and Unisel's seriousness on the matter, I instructed PTPTN to reverse the freeze this morning,” he told the Malay-language daily.

PTPTN chairperson: Selangor has failed 

Meanwhile, Bernama reported PTPTN chairperson Ismail Mohamed Said ( below ) saying that the freeze was lifted because the Selangor government was seen as not being able to provide free education in the state.

NONE “We believe Selangor which is administered by Pakatan Rakyat cannot provide free education even though they keep claiming they can.

“We see it the other way and in this matter, those who become the victims are the students. We also received a lot of response on the matter especially from parents to lift the freeze.

“They said if PPTPTN continued with the freeze, their children would be forced to drop out because they would not be able to bear the cost of their studies,” he said when contacted by Bernama in Kuantan today.

As such, he said Unisel students could submit applications for study loans from PTPTN and that each application would be processed as normal.

“Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin has sent a letter to Unisel on the lifting of the freeze and its students can make applications for PTPTN loans as normal,” he said.

NONE Prior to this, Mohamed Khaled was reported to have said that the freeze was imposed to test the Selangor government’s ability to provide free education, which PKR had been demanding that the federal government implement in the country. 

Malaysiakini on Tuesday reported that PTPTN had a temporarily freeze on loans for Unisel and Kuis students, in response to Pakatan Rakyat's proposal to provide free education if it takes over the federal government.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had admitted yesterday that the freeze was a test for the PKR-led Selangor government to prove it can implement its free education proposal.

Politicans and students alike have slammed the government for being “immature” and have called the BN government’s move to use the student loan as a political weapon “ repulsive ”.

Additional reporting by Nigel Aw, Aidila Razak and Nicholas Wong .

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