SEPTEMBER 25 — The other day I read on Malaysiakini a news item which made me happy.

The headline read: Crowd funding campaign leads to JPA bursary students to study abroad.

I’m happy for the students.

The Malaysiakini report tells me the crowd funding campaign started on June 30 after Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that bursaries would only be provided for students to study locally.

The JPA Bursary Programme is open to students who have completed their pre-university examinations, STPM or A Level.

But following the prime minister’s announcement, many students found themselves “stranded” as they can’t fund their studies despite gaining admission into top universities abroad.

Determined to study at top universities abroad, nine JPA students launched the crowd funding campaign to raise RM750,000 for their tuition fees for the first year.

The campaign managed to collect RM89,160 courtesy of 133 supporters, and the money will be allocated to one student to cover his first year tuition fees for a degree course at University College London.

The amount raised is a far cry from the targeted amount. Yet the students see it as something positive because the attention created has enabled them to secure some form of financial support as well.

As a result, five students subsequently received financial support from the private sector while two obtained corporate scholarships.

Leaving one i.e. Xiandi Ooi still unable to pursue her dream as she did not get any financial support.

And the irony is that Ooi is one of the most prominent members of the crowd funding campaign. But now she has no choice but to defer her enrolment in an oversea university until next year.

I’m sad for her. I pray that she will get the necessary aid to study abroad next year.

After feeling happy and then sad, there came the anger.

I’m angry that our students who are good enough to be accepted by the world’s top universities have to resort to crowd funding just to study abroad.

True, some would ask why don’t they study in the country? Had they they opted to study locally chances are they might get financial help, perhaps. But still let’s not hold their desire to study abroad against them. I would say let’s respect their dream.

How many times have we been told that ours is a “rich” country? Yet our students have to, pardon me for saying this, “beg” and “appeal” for financial help to study overseas.

Where did we go wrong? Leakages and financial abuses at the expense of our young who want to reach for the sky, so to speak?

That makes me angrier.

Oh one more thing. The money collected via crowd funding for the student in the UK varsity mentioned earlier is for year one fees only. How about the following years?

Now that makes me scared for him. Very scared.

A few days ago, another report on students caught my eye. This time a report on Malay Mail Online.

The headlines as if was screaming at me. It read: Malaysian varsity students in Egypt in trouble over RM4.5 million debt.

What?

According to the report, some 150 Malaysian medical science students in Egypt may be forced to drop their studies as they face a RM4.5 million debt pile brought on by the weak value of the ringgit.

The students studying medicine, pharmacy and dentistry in eight universities in Egypt are struggling to pay tuition fees which come to RM33,033 annually.

A student leader was quoted saying “the issue of backdated fees has become more serious after the fall of the ringgit at the end of last year, affecting the exchange rates on the US dollar and pound which made cost of fees higher.”

And the student leader also said the cost of living in Egypt had jumped by 50per cent over the last two years, inflicting difficulties on students especially those without scholarships or sponsorship.

Many students are now broke and forced to seek public funds to get by. And they are now trying to work out a temporary way out with the Malaysian authorities while seeking a permanent solution, the student leader was reported as saying.

Now all that makes me sad, angry and fearful all at the same time. I’m sure you feel the same. — Sin Chew Daily

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.