Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that the dormitories at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will undergo renovation to accommodate more students. During the launch of the National Book Award on Thursday (Dec 21), the Prime Minister emphasized the need for the immediate renovation of the university’s student accommodations.
He further expressed, “It was reported that UPSI has the (lowest) student accommodation (capacity), therefore I have instructed the Finance Ministry and UPSI vice-chancellor to urgently start the development here. The proposal must be approved before the year ends so that construction can start.”
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Furthermore, Anwar mentioned that the initial phase of the development would involve refurbishing the existing rooms to accommodate more students while new blocks are being constructed. As the Finance Minister, Anwar has also allocated RM25mil for renovation and refurbishment works to increase the capacity of UPSI’s current 18 college blocks.
Additionally, he highlighted the pressing issue of the low accommodation capacity at UPSI, stating “The student quarters can only accomodate 36% or 7,804 out of the more than 21,000 students here. This is the lowest accommodation rate by a public university in the nation. Other public institutions have a 60% accommodation rate.”
