JAKARTA: Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) has reached an agreement with Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) in Indonesia to solve the problem of the study fees of 115 medical graduates of an Allianze University College of Medical Science-USU (AUCMS-USU) twinning programme, under its sponsorship.
Mara director in Indonesia Zuliana Haslinda Anhar Zubir said all the students could now heave a sigh of relief and USU is prepared to award degrees to the affected students soon.
She said the crisis cropped up when AUCMS, a private medical college operating in Penang, failed to pay the study fees of the students to USU although Mara had made an early payment to AUCMS. “The crisis started when AUCMS failed to settle the study fees financed by Mara and it became complicated when the management of the medical college changed hands,” she told reporters here, today.
She said, as a result, USU refused to award the degrees and the transcripts of the results of the affected students’ examination, to them, although they had returned home and became trainee doctors in hospitals in Malaysia.
Zuliana Haslinda said the amount of outstanding fees came up to millions of ringgits and Mara chairman Tan Sri Anwar Musa would personally hand over the outstanding amount on April 2.
She said Mara had also stopped the sponsorship of students at AUCMS and the last batch of students was in 2010, and all students who were still undergoing their studies had been transferred to a medical college in Melaka.
She said, prior to this, Mara had received complaints from students concerning lecturers who did not turn up for classes at AUCMS claiming they were not paid by the management of the college.
Zuliana Haslinda said, AUCMS gave the excuse that the college was facing cash flow problems and could not pay the fees of the students sent to USU.
“We regret the weakness of the college but due to our sense of responsibility and the importance of the bilateral relations between the two nations, Mara had agreed to bear (the cost of the study fees and settle all problems arising,” she said.
She said Mara could only make payments on the fees of students under its sponsorship and could not help the other students.
A total 393 medical students from Malaysia opted for the AUCMS-USU twinning programme which was introduced since 2002, and of the total, 115 were under Mara sponsorship. According to USU, the overall outstanding fees of the AUCMS students amounted to RM7,620,025, including the fees of students sponsored by Mara and other quarters. - BERNAMA