The National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) has lifted its freeze on issuing study loans to students of Universiti Selangor (Unisel) with immediate effect.

Its chairperson Ismail Mohamed Said, who confimed this, said the freeze was lifted because the Selangor government was seen as not being able to provide free education in the state.

“We believe Selangor which is administered by Pakatan Rakyat cannot provide free education even though they keep claiming they can.

“We see it the other way and in this matter, those who become the victims are the students. We also received a lot of response on the matter especially from parents to lift the freeze.

“They said if PPTPTN continued with the freeze, their children would be forced to drop out because they would not be able to bear the cost of their studies,” he said when contacted by Bernama in Kuantan today.

As such, he said Unisel students could submit applications for study loans from PTPTN and that each application would be processed as normal.

“Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin has sent a letter to Unisel on the lifting of the freeze and its students can make applications for PTPTN loans as normal,” he said.

Prior to this, Mohamed Khaled was reported to have said that the freeze was imposed to test the Selangor government’s ability to provide free education, which it had been demanding that the federal government implement in the country.
 
- Bernama