PRIVATE COLLEGE STUDENTS WANT THEIR MONEY BACK

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- A group of final year students at a

private college in Negeri Sembilan claimed that their college had taken their

subsistence money, totalling RM18,000 each.

The group''s spokesperson Hafisza Abdul Ghani, 24, said the money, channelled

to their accounts by the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) had

been taken by the college which allegedly left only RM100 to them each time the

payment was made.

She claimed that the issue affected 432 students.

"When we first applied for the PTPTN loan, we had to sign a direct debit

document from the college but the college did not explain the purpose of the

document and instead forced us to sign it at once.

"Some of us had to forged the signatures of our parents because of the need

to hand in the document within a short period," she told a news conference with

Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) here today.

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STUDENT-MONEY 2 (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR

She said that throughout the duration of her studies, she only received four

payments, totalling RM400, forcing her to work part-time to meet her daily

expenditure.

"I hope the money is returned to us," she said.

Meanwhile, PPIM secretariat director Dr Izham Nayan expressed disappointment

over the matter.

He claimed that there were other instances of misappropriations at the

college involving the PTPTN loan, including forcing some students to sign a

document stating that they had received the subsistence money in total when in

fact only a portion was paid.

He called on PTPTN to monitor its loan disbursement process to ensure the

money reaches the target and not allowing colleges absolute power to manage the

fund.

-- BERNAMA

NNAI LES JS