'If I can't get info on UM's RM90k degrees, how can the public?'

Gerakan vice-president Dominic Lau has tried unsuccessfully so far to meet with members of Universiti Malaya (UM) administration to get an explanation of the RM90,000 tuition fees for its engineering direct intake programme.

"What I am trying to say is that, as a BN component party, to get this information is so difficult.

"How do you expect the public to get the explanation or the information so easily?" Lau said at a press conference at the Gerakan headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

He had previously criticised UM engineering faculty's "direct intake" bachelor degree programme for charging tuition fees of RM90,000, which is nine times the subsidised price.

The "direct intake" programme is being offered in partnership with the University of Malaya Centre for Continuing Education (UMCCED), a private wing of UM.

Lau said he had gone to UM to meet with the dean of the Engineering Faculty to get a better understanding of the issue, but was directed to its International and Corporate Relations Department.

He was told that the information related to the programme was submitted to the ministry and that they cannot provide it to outsiders, he said.

"So I straightaway went to see the academic deputy vice-chancellor. Also, I got nothing," he said.

Filled a form for official appointment

"End up, I have to make appointment officially, and I filled up a form," he added.

Lau said he has no issues with the direct intake programme, as UM is not the first public university to have such a programme.

His problem, he said, was with the RM90,000 tuition fees.

"This fee (at RM90,000) is unfair to students from lower-income families.

"Education should not be for sale, especially in our public universities," he said.

Lau does not mind if the RM90,000 is only applied to international students, as there is no need to subsidise the fees for foreigners, he said.

"We need to subsidise our 'anak Malaysia' (children of Malaysia), who are our future leaders," he said.

If the university intends to continue with the direct intake programme, he said, it should stop student placements through the Student Entry Administration Department (UPU) of the Higher Education Ministry.

"If you really want to have direct intake, don't use UPU," Lau added.- Mkini