JOHOR BAHRU, Dec 14 — A total of 716 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) students have benefited from scholarships through its Endowment Fund, with an estimated value of RM27 million so far.
UTM Endowment director Associate Professor Dr Yusof Boon said the awarding of the scholarships since 2011, reflected UTM’s commitment to helping students from low-income families (B40).
He said screening and interviews were done to ensure the scholarships were awarded to deserving students regardless of race, background, faculty and state.
UTM is one of the public universities in the country that has an Endowment Unit with the aim of helping B40 students and one of the objectives is to help students by providing scholarships, he said, adding that the majority of the scholarship recipients (about 385 people) graduated with excellent results.
The scholarships awarded to excellent B40 students amounted to RM6,000 per semester or RM12,000 per year with the condition that the recipient must obtain a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.50 or above each semester, he added.
“B40 students with a CGPA of 3.00 or above receive a scholarship worth RM5,000 per semester or RM10,000 a year with the condition of obtaining a CGPA of 3.00 or above each semester,” he said in an interview with Bernama, here Tuesday.
He said the Endowment Fund, set up in 2009, started giving out scholarships only in 2011 through contributions from various parties such as staff, alumni, the community, organisations, corporations and through projects such as the sale of ‘UTM’ number plates and crowdfunding programmes, courses and training.
Yusof said more than 900 UTM staff also played a role in providing regular contributions through monthly salary deductions, with a total value of nearly RM30,000 a month.
He said the cumulative amount of the UTM Endowment Fund to date amounted to almost RM138 million, with the fund also used for research through the sponsorship of Professor Chairs, the publication of scientific journals and books as well as high-impact programmes.
Various forms of donations were also given to students and the community through the fund, such as financial assistance in conjunction with festivals, and to those affected by disasters as well as, laptop loans.
“We also provide free food to students, staff and asnaf, aid to flood victims in Johor and Selangor, as well as build two houses for B40 UTM students, as well as face masks and sanitisers during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
He said the UTM Endowment Fund is almost RM138 million and is considered one of the highest for public universities in Malaysia.
It is hoped that one day it will be in line with the Endowment Fund of famous universities, such as Harvard University, which has a fund of US$40.9 billion, Stanford University (US$14.46 billion) and the National University of Singapore (S$9.5 billion), he added.
He said one of the main sources of the Endowment Fund of the renowned university comes from the contribution of their alumni fund.
Therefore, he hoped for more parties, especially the UTM alumni, now totalling more than 200,000, will contribute to the UTM Endowment Fund so that more students and the community could benefit from it.
