Earlier this week, a dating platform said that 12,705 students from 10 institutions of higher learning in the Klang Valley, including two public universities, were currently registered with the company.

Sugarbook, the biggest “sugar daddy-sugar baby” dating service in Asia, said the pandemic and movement control order (MCO) had caused more university students in Malaysia to turn to “sugar daddies” for money to cover their cost of living and tuition fees.

In a statement today, the ministry said it views the matter seriously and has contacted several universities listed in the report to obtain more information about the data.

“The universities have said there are numerous doubts about the data,” said the ministry’s director-general Husaini Omar.

“The ministry and universities will address this issue effectively and will conduct a detailed internal review to ensure that what has been reported by the media can be handled as well as possible.”

Husaini also questioned the “quite impossible” data for Sunway University, where 45% of its students are allegedly involved as “sugar babies”, according to the dating platform.

He said UiTM had also lodged a police report to deny the various media reports on the issue.