KUALA LUMPUR – Universiti Malaya (UM) must address the systemic issues behind insufficient accommodation on campus as such matters have presented problems to students for several years now, its students’ union said.
According to Universiti Malaya Students’ Union (UMSU) president Ooi Go Shen, the conundrum of inadequate housing facilities is also further exacerbated by UM increasing its yearly student intake.
“Based on the 2020 UM annual report, around 4,330 students were accepted into the university. However, for the upcoming academic year, UM is expecting an intake of more than 6,000 students,” he told The Vibes.
He claimed that the approximately 33% increase does not align with the housing capacity of residential colleges and the number of teaching staff, with the latter presenting a whole other set of problems to students.
“Students struggle every year during course enrollments as there are not enough electives to go around, and the root cause of that is because we do not have sufficient teaching manpower,” he said.
He added that since students will be returning to campus next month as face-to-face learning will resume in the upcoming semester, many of those denied spots in residential colleges now face difficulties in securing a place to live outside campus grounds, no thanks to university authorities.
“There has been a lot of outcry (from students) because staying in a residential college for two semesters (10 months) costs around RM2,250 whereas a rental room in the nearby area can cost up to RM500 a month.
“No initiatives are being done by UM to support those who require financial support,” he claimed.
He said that while there were originally plans to operate a 13th residential college (KK13), such plans seem to have encountered setbacks, preventing students from staying in one of the buildings.
“The plans (to open KK13) were written in the 2019 UM annual report. Perhaps due to the Covid-19 pandemic or other reasons, the contractor (has for now) failed to complete renovation works for the largest block in KK13, which can house up to 1,584 students,” he said.
In a statement issued by UMSU yesterday, the group pointed out that UM only has an accommodation capacity of 12,067, a figure that does not tally with its student population, with postgraduate students alone numbering about 16,734.
Subsequently, the union said that more than 10,000 senior students have been forced to seek private accommodation outside the campus.
Labelling the problem as being a result of “sidelined structural issues”, the union, together with the representatives of student movements, clubs and associations, issued several demands to UM administrators and the Higher Education Ministry “to fix their lackadaisical attitude”.
Among the demands were for the KMUM Housing Rental programme to be reinstated immediately and for targeted aid to be given to eligible B40 students who have failed to secure residential college placements.
Besides that, it called on the Finance Ministry to allocate funding for the construction of more residential colleges across public universities, and urged the Higher Education Ministry to ensure that current academic infrastructure – whether in terms of facilities or staff – is sufficient to accommodate the influx of students.
“If the demands above are not fulfilled, we will not hesitate to escalate the matter further,” it warned.
Their demands echo those previously expressed by the University of Malaya Association of New Youth, which condemned university authorities for remaining silent on such serious issues. – The Vibes, September 4, 2022
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