Thank you for doing the survey! ^^

I agree that when taking loans, there shouldn't be any sentiment associated and everyone should have been aware of what they are getting involved. It's money, so things can easily black and white with proper communication of information. Though in my case, since JPA JKPJ was marketed as scholarship at that time and the shift to loan wasn't made aware to many (we are the second batch to receive it in loan form), most of us accept it unaware of the scale of payback since not many in our immediate surrounding have the capability to advice us regarding it (parents and family low education and lack of exposure towards contracts etc) I would say in general in my time, the offer come across a bit predatory as it targets vulnerable candidates like us for this offer as we were all ignorant SPM leavers and have mostly uneducated family backgrounds who were just sincerely happy that we got a 'scholarship' and didn't know any better. So yeah, regrets is abundant.

They are now more transparent in regards to that though. Saw them mentioning it on Myself website. So, future students that takes this loans should be able to do it much more clear headed than us.

However, putting aside my situation, I still believe that sentiment needs to be discussed in this conversation. Because, in many situations, things aren't simply black and white. For example, dissatisfaction can breeds due to lack of transparency by loan provider. Furthermore, high monthly loans payment can be holding borrowers back in many future decisions (marriage, insurance, children, car, house etc). And some may decide to stay in a job they hate, or in a job that pays well for a fresh grad but have low growth/promotion opportunities for the sake of money. Some could also just settle for whatever job they get instead of what they studied for (skill underemployment). Furthermore, due to the debt discount programs that PTPTN been doing, some people can be discouraged to pay it regularly. Opting to just wait until a bigger discount or future discount instead. The lack of enforcement of punishment can also instill a sentiment of confidence that they can escape from their obligation.

When money isn't just money or transparent or consistent, that's when sentiment breeds. When the rules keeps changing, lack of information can prevent people from planning for the future or decide to be speculative. So, to a certain extent, this survey also aims to evaluate communication and treatment between loan holder and loan provider and their enforcement of punishment. Good faith would be key I believe.

I am not saying not wanting to payback is okay. But, if most of the defaulters are telling us they are earning less than RM2000 per month despite their high education, that they aren't able to afford it, and its affecting their life and career advancement, maybe we should try to understand what aspect are affected, to what extent and how we can try to achieve a win win in this situation. Is the the loan amount? Is it a lack of job? Is it a policy issue? Is it structural ? Is it lack of enforcement ?

So, the way we are handling PTPTN is not sustainable. The amount of debt PTPTN is taking is scary, it is now even bigger than 1MDB at  67 billion. We need people to start paying back. Just being mad and complaining at those who didn't payback wont solve this white elephant. And the fact that JPA is shifting to loan policies now despite being aware of the issues faced by PTPTN, is this an appropriate move?

Most importantly, it is my greatest wish that our education system would include financial education in the syllabus. We really cannot expect the 17-18 years old to make multi thousands decision unaware of economic and market situations. Well, even my 40+ old parents don't know enough to advise their children on it hence I am in this situation. As I shared in the post, Malaysians needs much improvement in terms of financial knowledge. We know this, is the policymakers doing something about it?
You make a good point there regarding degrees worth. In fact, due to our zealousness to have more graduates, this means deteriorating academic standards in order to generate more graduates with 'good' results. This however led to the questioning on the quality of our graduates among employers, hence the question of whether a degree is worth the debt, since nowadays, a degree no longer translates into a good job.

In fact, I myself have been encouraging my siblings to consider vocational and skill related field instead due to their higher employability rather than going to university.

Who's gonna pay back the 67 billion PTPTN debt then?   That's simply a rash populist policy that's impossible to be executed. Nobody wins if it happens. We need debt holders to pay back. It really says a lot about PH is this is truly what they are promoting.

50% are defaulting now so we need to understand why they aren't paying back. We are expecting degree education to boost social mobility, but the PTPTN experiment proves that this isn't true and despite the rising cost of education, the value of an education it is actually dropping. Even degree graduates are struggling with 2k salaries nowadays.