UNIVERSITI Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) said its officials were gathering facts when they questioned several students who had protested against a fee hike, and said no further disciplinary action would be taken against them.

Three students from the affiliate Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), said they were grilled by by UTM security officers on Wednesday after holding a protest outside the university’s gates.

One of the protesters, Tan Cheng Siong, told The Malaysian Insight that they were grilled by two auxiliary policemen for two hours.

In a statement today, the university dismissed claims that the three protest leaders were grilled for six hours on Wednesday without a break.

“An interview with students was conducted at the time agreed by the three students. The individual interview of students each took approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes for each student, taking into account the time off for the breaking of fast,” it said.

“The claim that students were interviewed for 6 hours non-stop is not true at all.”

The institution also said that no further action would be taken against the students.

The statement noted that the protesters were initially given a green light by the police. However, the permission was later revoked.

Because of the revocation, and on the advice of the university’s legal office, the security division was instructed to obtain detailed information about the protest.

“The interview session was held according to the university regulations which is required when an incident that took place did not follow the university’s rule and regulations,” read the statement.

“The university does not have any intention of taking any disciplinary action against the students involved.”

On April 9, some 200 students staged a demonstration in front of the UTM KL campus against the imposition of a special fee on students enrolled for the September 2016/2017 intake and onward.

This has caused semester fees to increase by more than 400% to RM5,000.

First semester students will have to pay a RM2,771 special fee while those who are on their second semester and upwards will have to pay RM3,971. – May 31, 2019.