No plans to stop funding for courses with low repayment - PTPTN chair

There are no plans to discontinue funding university courses that have low repayment rates, said National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) chairperson Norliza Abdul Rahim.

She said this after fund CEO Ahmad Dasuki Abdul Majid was reported as saying that the corporation was considering withholding funding for university courses with student repayment rates that fall below 30 percent.

“No decision has been made yet as we need to conduct further studies which have yet to begin,” Free Malaysia Today reported Norliza as saying today.

She also said once the study is complete, PTPTN would make the findings public, adding that students need not worry about the matter.

On Nov 14, Dasuki reportedly told a webinar that PTPTN was considering withholding funding for university courses with student repayment rates below 30 percent.

It was previously reported that as of Dec 31, 2021, RM32.29 billion in PTPTN loans remained unpaid by 2,716,110 borrowers.

‘Unfair’

Unimpressed with Dasuki’s remark, the University of Malaya Association of New Youth (Umany) chided PTPTN over the matter, saying the idea was unfair and failed to address the cause of the low repayment rates.

The move would punish innocent students rather than those who have defaulted on repayments, the group added.

“The primary reason for low repayment rates is the large number of graduates struggling to repay loans… (The proposal is) punishing the innocent rather than the guilty.

“A student’s ability to repay a loan depends on personal financial circumstances, not the course they pursued,” Umany was reported as saying.

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