'Housing agents not paid, MUST students evicted'

Students of the Malaysian University of Science and Technology (MUST), which had received a RM100 million government grant in 2001, are now being "moved about" as the university has failed to uphold its offer of free accommodation. 

PKR's Seri Setia assemblyperson Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad claimed that students at the private university have approached him, saying that they are being evicted as the university has failed to pay accommodation agents. 

"The university had made the offer of free accommodation for one batch of students, perhaps in their marketing strategy,” he told a press conference today. 

"It then made a deal with the agents, and the agents were to pay the landlord, but the university is not paying the agents so the students are getting kicked out."

To make matters worse, students are also being charged for accommodation through their National Higher Education Fund loans even though they have been evicted. 

Malaysiakini had last year reported that the university, set up as a premier university with a joint venture with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had been left with less than RM10 million to keep afloat. 

The university was founded in 2001 by then cabinet minister Effendi Norwawi.

[More to follow]