Are private unis worth less?
As expected, Budget 2026 offered almost nothing for private higher education institutions with the hopes of industry lobbyists for tax breaks, bailouts or liberalisation of foreign student recruitment falling on deaf ears.
On the other hand, public universities had welcome news. Free education is to be given to 5,800 students from low-income families with public universities receiving RM120 million or RM20,000 each.
An extension of exemptions from student loan repayments for public university graduates with first-class degrees from low-income families allocated RM90 million or RM15,000 each, pays off the money they already spent at the public universities.
Surprisingly, higher education minister Zambry Kadir announced the suspension of the loan exemption pending a review of the definition and standards of the first-class category to tighten eligibility.
One way of interpreting this is that the ministry considers first-class degrees from private universities to be worth less than…
