MMU reverses fee hike for existing students after 1,000-strong protest

After a protest held by dissatisfied students, the Malacca Multimedia University (MMU) management has agreed not to increase its student activity fee (SAF) for all existing students.

“Based on mutual agreement, the management is agreeable that there will be no SAF increment for all existing undergraduate and postgraduate students.

“However, an official announcement of the policy will be released by the management after a detailed discussion with the students’ representative council (SRC),” said the SRC in a statement today.

They thanked the MMU management for collaborating with them to attain the “win-win” situation.

“We appreciate the students’ support and patience throughout this matter,” they said.

The decision appears to be the result of a negotiation between the SRC and MMU's management.

On July 23, about 1,000 MMU students had gathered at the university’s President Square (below) to protest what they described as an unfair increment to the SAF.

The fee was previously RM110 per year and the university had intended to raise it to RM500.

The university had announced this in a memo to students, which also said the increase will be implemented in April 2020 and that the decision was made to facilitate student activities with a higher impact.

SRC president Pouria Zibaei had claimed the announcement of the fee hike was made without the approval of the council, clubs and societies.

He also said a total of 11,500 signatures had been collected from students and submitted to the SRC to management on July 19.

A day after their protest, MMU's management had contacted the students’ representative council for negotiation regarding the SAF.

The meeting had supposedly taken place sometime last week. - Mkini