The UUCA bill seeks to remove the prohibition on students in universities from being involved in political parties within their campus.

The amendments tabled today are a far cry from the announcement made by the Pakatan Harapan government earlier, where the education ministry had given assurance that the UUCA would be abolished.

Last month, the ministry said efforts were underway to abolish the act and that this would be done in stages.

The other bills tabled for amendment today were the Private Higher Educational Institutions (Amendments) Bill 2018 and Educational Institutions (Discipline) (Amendments) Bill 2018.

All three seek to allow students of higher education to participate in political parties on campus.

The UUCA was tightened to restrict student involvement in politics in 1975 after the landmark Baling protests one year earlier.

Thousands of university students demonstrated in Baling, Kedah, in solidarity with rubber tappers who were struggling to survive after global rubber prices collapsed.

They were led by student activists such as Anwar Ibrahim and Hishamuddin Rais.

After 1975, students from public universities and those in private higher education institutions, polytechnics, community colleges and teacher institutes were placed under the UUCA.