Just hours before the Pakatan Harapan government presents its second budget, a group of 40 students gathered at Parliament seeking to meet Education Minister Maszlee Malik over exorbitant fees.
The Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) students gathered before noon and put up their banner near the access road to the August House.
The group chanted "long live students...don't lie to us" at the Parliament.
"We are here to meet Maszlee and present our three demands," MJIIT Voice chairperson Tan Cheng Siong told Malaysiakini.
"We want the special fees charged against MJIIT students to be removed and the excessive fees paid for the first to fourth year returned to us," he said.
He said during their meeting with Maszlee two months ago, not much was discussed about the matter due to time constraints.
He, however, noted that Maszlee has informed them, via an aide, that the minister agreed to meet them at 3pm.
MJIIT is a faculty under the supervision of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). It was established in 2010 by the Malaysian and Japanese governments, in line with the then former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Look East Policy.
Free Malaysia Today reported the special fees, amounting to RM5,000, had affected close to 600 students, comprising first to third-year students who enrolled in the faculty from 2016 to 2018.
"We gathered today to urge the government not to (further) reduce the allocation for the higher education," said Tan.
Tan also urged the government to consider removing UTM vice-chancellor Wahid Omar, who declined to meet the students over their concern.
The students were shocked to learn their fees had increased five-fold from RM945 to RM5,000 since 2016.
They were told the actual cost of for their non-subsidised studies at MJIIT is RM79,868 for four years.
In April, the students renewed their efforts to protest at the university.
UTM (Academic and International) deputy vice-chancellor Zainuddin Abd Manan was reportedly saying the university had agreed to cover 49 percent of the fees. - Mkini
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