All Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) students must stay in approved hostels from the next intake in July, in a move ostensibly designed to prevent "social ills and undesirable incidents", according to a circular signed by deputy vice-chancellor Dr Alias Mohd Noor.

Alias - who oversees student affairs - issued the two-page circular on Feb 21, a copy of which is displayed on notice boards in the campus in Skudai, 16km from Johor Bahru.

"Should student not choose (to reside in) a hostel according to procedures in place, the university authorities will automatically place the student in an off-campus hostel and he/ she will be charged accordingly for rental," he said in the circular, a copy of which was made available to malaysiakini.

It is understood that the ruling will affect all those currently residing in rented premises off-campus, as they will have to move into university approved hostels or residential colleges.

A dialogue is scheduled to be held tomorrow between students and the student affairs department over the new ruling, with at least 500 students expected to attend.

At the same time, students were notified of a hike in hostel fees, purportedly due to an increase in management costs and to facilitate upgrading of facilities in the residential colleges. The circular noted that the last fee adjustment was in 1999.

Alias said in the circular that the rate was based on the room size and the location of the hostel. The new fee ranges from RM3.50 to RM6.50 per head per day, which is about 15 percent higher that the current rate.

In the past, only first-year students were made to stay on campus. From the second year onwards, they could choose where they wanted to reside.

However, in mid-2003, the university issued a ruling stating that freshies and students registered to stay in hostels could not moved out after registration.

Rationale questioned

The announcement has elicited strong objections, with malaysiakini receiving several complaints.

When contacted, a student leader from a self-proclaimed 'campus monitoring group' said students should be allowed to choose whether or not to stay in designated hostels.

"Our rights have been ignored," said the student who requested anonymity - the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 prohibits students and academic staff from issuing media statements without prior approval from the vice-chancellor.

The student leader said the ruling would especially inconvenience those who have been staying in cheaper off-campus rented premises for several years in neighbouring housing estates.

For instance, the rent for a single room in Taman Universiti and Taman Pulai Utama is about RM150 a month, compared to RM190 for a room in the university's hostels.

"More importantly, the majority of the university's hostels not equipped with phone lines, so we can't get access to the Internet. The size of the hostel room is also smaller than in off-campus premises," he explained.

The student leader noted that affected students will face problems over terminating tenancy agreements and that they would have to sell the furniture they have acquired for unfurnished rooms.

He also questioned the university's rationale of citing the safety of students in coming up with the new ruling.

"I can't see how safe students will be when they stay in university hostels because we know of certain cases of cover-ups in the past," he alleged.

"We are especially worried for female students who live in hostels because the authorities can conduct raids at any time on their rooms. We have received numerous complaints previously."

He said he believed the move was actually intended to curb student activism, since the 'anti-establishment' faction won in last year's campus elections.

"Certainly when the university places all students in its hostels, they can easily monitor our activity and control us. We would not have any platform then," he added.

Real motive?

A final-year student, who is not affected by the ruling, expressed empathy with the students, echoing the sentiment that they should be allowed a choice of accommodation.

"As a senior, I will support any campaign initiated by the juniors because I experienced a very different lifestyle when I stayed in hostel," said the student, who now lives off-campus.

In an email received by malaysiakini, another UTM student alleged the move was intended to meet the cost of building additional residential colleges.

Another 10 residential colleges were added to the original seven between 2002 and 2003, while additional blocks were constructed at the existing hostels.

"Is it really the safety of students that matters or is it that they want money (to cover expansion costs)? It is very obvious that they only want to cover their expenses on the new colleges," the complainant said.

Last November, UTM authorities had directed students to wear proper attire on 'smart day' every Monday. This made it compulsory for male students to wear long-sleeve shirts in white or light colours, ties, dark-coloured pants and socks, and shoes.

Muslim female students are required to wear Malay attire like baju kurung and shoes, while their non-Muslim counterparts have to wear long-sleeve blouses, dark maxi-length skirts and shoes. On 'smart day' female students are not allowed to wear shirts and pants.

The university said the move was enforced to develop "an attitude of excellence among students through discipline, rules and regulations".