KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) has called on the Higher Education Ministry to clarify which institutions would be applicable for the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) first-class honours loan repayment exemption.
The MCA president said it would be unfair if students from private higher education institutions (IPTS) became ineligible for the exemption due to the original purpose PTPTN was created.
He said PTPTN, created in 1997, was originally created to support students facing financial constraints as they pursued studies at IPTS due to the higher tuition fees at these institutions.
“It was later extended to public higher education institutions (IPTA), but now, it seems they want to reverse it by excluding IPTS students, even though they were the original beneficiaries.
“The government should not penalise students simply because they study at private universities as they too are Malaysians who may not have had the opportunity to study at public universities
“Education must remain a vehicle for social equalisation, not segregation,” Dr Wee said when debating the motion of thanks on Budget 2026 in Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (Oct 15).
Dr Wee’s comments came after Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir announced that it had temporarily suspended first-class honours loan repayment exemptions to ensure fairness between IPTA and IPTS on Tuesday (Oct 14),.
Zambry said this was due to the need to standardise the definition of "first-class honours" across IPTA and IPT,S with there being over 390 IPTS nationwide.
To this, Dr Wee suggested the government set clear quality benchmarks, such as limiting the exemption to the top 10% of each programme, or restricting it to non-profit and fully accredited IPTS.
He also urged the Education Ministry to facilitate cross-agency collaboration to resolve root cause issues in our schools, following recent shocking cases of bullying, rape and murder at schools nationwide.
