KUALA LUMPUR: The police investigation into the death of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) undergraduate S. Vinosiny, who died in a hostel room last year, is still ongoing.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the ministry had not been informed of the results of the investigation as yet, therefore would not comment further on the matter.
Khalid said the ministry took the matter seriously and always gave attention to the issue of student welfare and safety, especially on campus.
"Some steps have been and will be taken by the ministry to avoid similar incidents. Among the steps include ordering all public universities to re-evaluate the safety aspects at their respective university; every university must conduct its risk assessment more often to ensure a safe environment and issues involving maintenance of buildings and students' safety be examined as soon as possible.
"Universities must also conduct building maintenance audits periodically, and to empower the environment, safety and occupational health unit at every higher education institution," he said in a written reply in parliament today.
Khaled was responding to a question posed yesterday by V. Ganabatirau (PH-Klang) who asked about the development of the death case involving S. Vinosiny and the measures to prevent the same tragedy from happening again.
Vinosiny was found dead on May 21 last year. She was suspected to have died after being electrocuted in her dormitory.
His father, R. Sivakumar lodged a police report against the university on May 27.
He also called for a thorough investigation to find out if the building was properly maintained by the university