"Data" on the number of young women acting as "sugar babies" is dubious and possibly improbable, said the Higher Education Ministry.
The ministry had contacted several of the universities listed as having a high number of female students registered for sugar baby services - and found that many have expressed doubts with the data published.
"Sunway Education Group said it is impossible that 45 percent of its Sunway University students are involved as sugar babies.
"This is as the number of students at Sunway University is fewer than 7,000. As such, reports that 3,105 of the university's students are sugar babies are not reasonable," Higher Education director-general Husaini Omar said in a statement today.
Earlier this week, controversial dating service Sugarbook gained renewed attention when it released a survey of the "Top 10 Sugarbaby Universities", listing higher learning institutions with the most "sugar baby" users.
Regardless of doubts on the data, Husaini said the Higher Education Ministry, together with universities, would tackle the issue more effectively.
This includes universities doing thorough internal reviews to ensure proper responses to media reports.
He said the ministry would also be meeting with the Youth and Sports Ministry; Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry; the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, and NGOs to formulate a programme to ensure the character of the students and the image of higher learning institutions are protected.
Earlier, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Ahmad Marzuk Shaary called for the Sugarbook app to be banned.
Sugarbook offers dating services between younger women and older men, but there have been concerns that relationships matched on the platform were transactional.
South China Morning Post had reported that the soliciting of sex is rife on the app, but Sugarbook had said it makes combating vice and exploitation a priority. - Mkini
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