Students use blogshops to help fund their studies

Not that we don't already know this, but here is a mention of blogshops being started by students to help ends meet. It's just one line, but it is still a testimony to how online businesses are so easy to set up now.

This brings into mind the number of Malaysian and Singaporean students overseas who have also started blogshops to send things back home for sale.

From The Star newspaper

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/8/8/lifefocus/6787392&sec=lifefocus

Sunday August 8, 2010

Funding $tudies

By SHARMILA NAIR
starmag@thestar.com.my

Financial aid goes a long way when it comes to making ends meet.

THE first time Komaladevi Sukumar saw her kampung buddy present the news on television, she knew it was what she wanted to do as well. The only child told her mother that she wanted to be a broadcast journalist and travel the world to cover events. Her mother had no objections.

After completing her secondary education, Komala got a place to pursue a degree in mass communication, majoring in journalism, at a local university. It was an offer the Pahang-born lass couldn’t refuse, although she worried about the financial burden it would place on her family.

“My mother is a single parent. She works as a supervisor in a factory and earns about RM1,000 a month. I didn’t think that would cover the cost of my studies, which will amount to RM20,000,” the 21-year-old says.

 

Komaladevi hardly uses her money for shopping or entertainment.

 

Happily for her, help came from a different avenue; Komala applied for a loan from the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) and her application was approved. “Every four months the university deducts RM2,000 from my loan for fees. I get another RM2,000 for my personal expenses,” she explains.
This thrifty student stretches that amount to cover food, transport, books and miscellaneous purchases, until the next allowance is banked in, four months later.

“I try not to bug my mother for extra money, and I rarely use any cash I have for shopping or entertainment,” Komala says.

Aliyyah (above) and Rizuan (bottom left) are lucky in that their parents fund their education.

 

Max Choong, who is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree at a local college, also cuts down on unnecessary expenditure.

“My friends and I do very low-key activities like hanging out at the mamak stall or a mutual friend’s house. This way, it doesn’t cost any of us much,” says Choong, 21, who gets an allowance from his parents.
“It’s not a lot of money actually, just enough to pay for petrol and food every month. My friends, on the other hand, get RM500 to RM600 a month.”

Occasionally, he takes on part-time gigs to cover other expenses.

“I work part-time so there is extra cash. You know, helping out at events and stuff. It’s nothing tough or demanding so it’s good. Well, most my friends are pretty enterprising themselves. They start blogshops, sell stuff online and work part-time during weekends.”

Choong is in the final year of his course, which costs about RM70,000 in total. He was a offered a 30% fee discount by his college, which means he only has to pay about RM50,000 for the four-year course.

“I have to make payments before each semester starts, but not necessarily in full. I applied to pay my tuition fee in instalments, so I have more than a semester to clear the payment,” he says.

Initially, his parents reckoned they had to foot the whole cost of his education, but he decided to apply for a PTPTN loan to ease their burden.

“That is where I get the money to pay the tuition fees. The association banks in RM8,000 for me every six months, until the end of my course.”

Unlike Komala and Choong, Aliyyah Nuha Faiqah does not have to rely on loans to pay her tuition fees. All she has to do is ask her father.

“I must say I am not particularly worried as I have a solid financier – my father – and I also get a RM500 monthly allowance from my mother. I consider myself lucky that way,” says the 22-year-old marketing communications student.

Max Choong goes for low-key activities that do not cost much.

 

Aliyyah’s three-year course costs about RM38,000 and her father forks out the due amount at the beginning of each semester. Rizuan Arus Tajul Arus is another lucky student who does not have to worry about fees. The media studies student from a local university college relies on his parents to finance the two-and-a-half-year course, which costs about RM36, 000.

Rizuan will be done with his studies in about six months. “My parents fund my education. But the course I’m taking is cheaper at my college than at other private universities, locally or even abroad.”

Prior to this, Rizuan’s parents had forked out RM1,800 for his one-year foundation in arts course.

“I live with them, so I don’t worry about living expenses. They also pay for my petrol and handphone bill, which comes to about RM300 in total. But I don’t ask them for money for food or parking when I go out though.

Although Rizuan does not have time for part-time jobs, as he takes many subjects at college, he does spend his holidays earning extra cash at an advertising firm.

“I get paid around RM500 a month, which I usually save so that I don’t have to ask for too much money from my parents when classes start,” he says.