Menu Kasih Siswa Allocation Raised To RM26 Million

Christina Chandra

30th April 2026 - 2 min read

The Higher Education Ministry’s Menu Kasih Siswa programme has received a budget increase, with its total allocation raised from RM15 million to RM26 million as the initiative expands across universities in Malaysia.

The programme provides affordable meals to students, with a focus on those from lower-income backgrounds who struggle to manage daily living costs on campus.

Universities Told Not To Wait For A Minister

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said universities should not hold off on implementing the programme until a minister arrives to officiate a launch event.

Speaking at the second Malaysia-Turkiye Joint Committee meeting, Zambry said he had personally visited institutions including Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) and Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) to check on the rollout, and that the ministry had directed all universities to proceed on their own.

“This is about helping students facing financial hardships. We must move quickly,” he said.

Private Universities Also In The Picture

The ministry is working to bring the programme beyond public institutions. Zambry said private higher education institutions have been asked to hold discussions with the ministry’s director-general to ensure cafeteria and canteen prices are kept at affordable levels.

The ministry is also engaging with the National Student Representative Council, which includes student leaders from private universities, to identify the most effective ways to reach students who need support.

What The Expanded Budget Means For Students

Food is one of the steadier daily expenses on campus, especially if you are not getting much financial support from home. Spending RM10 a day on two cafeteria meals already adds up to over RM300 a month, and that figure climbs quickly if options are limited or overpriced.

The higher allocation gives the programme more reach, and the instruction to skip formal launch ceremonies points to a push for speed over ceremony. The extension to private institutions also matters, since students there are often left out of welfare initiatives that tend to centre on public campuses.

How much you actually benefit will still depend on how your university structures access, which meals are covered, and whether support reaches students who genuinely need it rather than being spread too thin. The engagement with student councils is one attempt to get that targeting right.

Christina Chandra

Christina writes about personal finance with an eye for making the complicated feel straightforward. She is drawn to the everyday money decisions people face and genuinely enjoys finding the clearest way to explain them. Between articles, she is probably napping, on a hiking trail, or terrorising her sister’s cats.

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