WITHOUT fail, there will always be students dropping out of universities everytime a new semester commences. In some cases, it is not because they failed their courses, but rather they simply can't afford to continue their studies due to unavoidable financial difficulties.
Four enterprising undergraduates believe if members of the public were to know about the problems in such incidents, they would be more than willing to chip in and help out. And it was this thought that led them to develop Skolafund, a web platform to crowdfund the amount needed by the unfortunate students to finance their education.
"Our mission is to make higher education affordable and accessible to those who qualify. We believe that no one should be deprived of quality education just because they cannot afford it," said Skolafund founding member Tengku Ahmad Syamil Tengku Ibrahim .
Skolafund first went online in April with an Alpha website that lasted till August. Throughout the four months, the platform raised near RM25,000 for six students through six different crowdfunding campaigns. Seeing the strong support and encouragement, the Skolafund team decided to create a Beta version of the platform by enhancing the website further, to make it more user-friendly, with an infrastructure that would be able to support more scholarship campaigns.
Learning Curve writer ROZANA SANI learns more about crowdfunding platform and the aspirations of the team behind it. Read more exclusively in the print edition of the New Sunday Times on Nov 1.