Saturday, January 28, 2006

Loans for Accredited Courses Only

In another funny deal, the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) has announced that it will only give out loans for accredited courses only, from July 1st on wards.

Eh er... why are we giving loans to unaccredited courses in the first place? And why are we extending the deadline for getting loans for unaccredited course by some 6 months so that students of those courses can still rush for last minute loans?

And guess what, according to our Minister of Higher Education, "only one-quarter of the courses currently approved for loans are accredited".
PTPTN was giving out loans for 2,225 courses offered at private institutions but only 564 of them had received accreditation from the National Accreditation Board.
What was interesting was the reason provided by the Minister for this apparent change in policy.
"Many loan recipients have refused to repay their loans as they say their qualification is worthless as it is not accredited by JPA even though it was approved by PTPTN.
So the change in policy is due to ungrateful students and not because the previous policy didn't make sense at all? So if there's another batch of ungrateful students who took up accredited courses but was unable to find employment which pays beyond RM1,000 per month, loans should be denied to these courses as well? Hmmm....
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2 comments:

  1. Chen Chow1/28/2006 02:03:00 pm

    I agree with Tony that the reason provided for this new policy change seems wierd.

    I fully agree that the approval since long ago, should have only been those accreditated course, and also there shouldn't be 6 months grace period for those to comply. Perhaps, the authority is looking from the perspective of students and perhaps those institution of higher learnings that provide unaccreditated courses.

    Another aspect that we would need to look at would be the responsibility of fellow Malaysians to step forward and repay the loan on their own. This is the tough part I guess.

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  2. Collin Michael Nunis1/29/2006 12:06:00 am

    This is rather absurd... I'm currently in the midst of filling out my PTPTN Application Form and I have checked if my course is accredited. Thank God it is as I have checked according to the PTPTN website.

    According to the PTPTN website, and subsequently the form, the course that the applicant is in must be accredited by LAN. Is the Government contradicting itself here by awarding loans for unaccredited courses? Or is PTPTN at war with their minister, just as how Zohadie had his conflict with Shafie. Something's really not right.

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