Two university students cropped their hair in their fight for academic freedom in front of the Universiti Malaya chancellery today.

Persatuan Mahasiswa UM president Fahmi Zainol said it was a symbolic protest against the multiple, unnecessary interventions to academic freedom in the university.

The move was also done in solidarity with Professor Mohd Redzuan Othman, who was pressured to resign as head of the Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections (Umcedel).

“It (cropping hair) is symbolic of the rights of students, which have been similarly cut,” Fahmi told Malaysiakini .

Secretary II of the students association, Yushen Leong, cropped his hair together with Fahmi.

Fahmi and Yushen, as well as more than 30 UM student activists, marched from the university’s main entrance to the chancellery in the hope of meeting Vice-Chancellor Professor Mohd Amin Jalaluddin.

Wearing face masks and brandishing banners demanding academic freedom, the students shouted for Amin to come down and were vehement to stay at the building staircase until he met with them.