KUCHING, March 15: Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen today met up with Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying to request her assistance to help a graduate from Kuching with a first class honours degree get her National Higher Education Corporation (PTPTN) loan waived.
According to Chong, the applicant from UCSI University with first class honours in a Bachelor of Arts in Commerce has applied to PTPTN for a loan waiver pursuant to one of the terms of the loan agreement that her loan will be waived if she attained first class honours for her degree.
However, PTPTN rejected the loan waiver application on the grounds that she did not complete the course within the time specified in the loan agreement.
“She had no choice but to comply with the schedule set by the university,” he explained in a statement following the meeting in Parliament, Kuala Lumpur today.
Chong added that the graduate’s appeal was submitted in late December 2022, but till this day, PTPTN has yet to give any reply.
On behalf of the applicant, Chong has submitted a letter to seek the Deputy Education Minister’s assistance so that the applicant’s PTPTN loan can be waived as she has earned it through all the hard work that she had put in for her study.
“I am grateful that YB Puan Lim Hui Ying agreed that she would bring this matter to the Ministry of Higher Education to look for a solution despite that PTPTN is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education,” he added.
Meanwhile, the federal government under former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had in July 2022 reinstated the PTPTN loan waiver for students who graduate with first-class honours.
At that time, the government said that the loan waiver will be given to all top students who graduated in 2019 regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Prior to that, the exemption was stopped and given only to students from B40 families. — DayakDaily
