KUALA LUMPUR: National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) defaulters earning over RM6,000 a month and with loan arrears exceeding five years face travel ban when the blacklist is reinstated.

Loan recipients working overseas who fail to make repayments will also be placed on the blacklist according to PTPTN Chairman Datuk Seri Norliza Rahim, who confirmed that the blacklist would be reinstated.

However, Norliza noted that specific implementation details have not yet been finalized.

The total accumulated debt of PTPTN now stands at RM40 billion, with RM11 billion still outstanding. Of this, over 400,000 borrowers have never made a single repayment, accounting for RM5 billion in unpaid loans.

On October 10, the Ministry of Finance published a summary of the 2026 Budget proposal on its official website, outlining several initiatives to implement a more targeted disbursement and loan recovery mechanism for higher education financing.

The 2026 budget allocates RM2.105 billion to PTPTN.

PTPTN first announced its collaboration with the Immigration Department in September 2015, placing 600,000 borrowers—who either had never repaid or defaulted for more than six months—on travel ban list.

In June 2018, after the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition came to power, it fulfilled a campaign promise by removing 166,155 names from the blacklist.

Later, in December 2018, PTPTN attempted to introduce a mandatory salary deduction scheme, but faced strong public backlash and subsequently halted the plan.

On the exemption from loan repayment for first class honors graduates, Norliza confirmed in a text message that the exemption was only applicable to students from public higher education institutions or universities.

Private university students who previously qualified for the exemption are no longer included under this policy.

This means that the “good news” announced last Friday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim actually narrows the pool of beneficiaries.

Under the new policy, only students from low- and middle-income families who earned a first-class honors bachelor’s degree at a public university will be exempted from repaying their PTPTN loans.

Graduates from private universities are excluded.

Under PTPTN’s existing policy prior to the announcement, both public and private university graduates with first-class honors degrees were eligible to apply for full loan exemption.

A private university president, when contacted, expressed hope that the government would reconsider extending the exemption to first-class honors graduates from private institutions.

He pointed out that many students in private universities also come from low-income families and could have been unable to secure a place in public universities due to enrollment quotas.

While tabling the 2026 Budget last Friday, Anwar announced that the government would waive PTPTN repayments for students from low- and middle-income families with a first-class honors degree from public universities.

The measure, costing RM90 million annually, is expected to benefit approximately 6,000 borrowers.