Little Things 118 : Why interns need to be paid?

The cost for a student to pay for an internship costs around RM2k in one of our local private university.

I exclaimed, "That's expensive! Why the university asked students to pay RM2000 for a course that they are not even included with, except for the 1 hour session of coming to the office and meeting the supervisor to check them up?". That's absurd. 

This is a life of a student. They don't make money. They take bus/train/taxi rides to work that costs money. They need breakfasts and lunches, that cost money. They were asked to bring their own laptops because the company decided to make them feel unwanted and unimportant that they just need to come and be there just to work, free labour. They have to buy suitable working attire. Those are all money. 

 *

1. The university charges RM2000+ for an internship course. 

2. An internship usually takes around 2-3 months, so it is not included in the PTPTN loan.

3. The company usually don't pay much or 'at all' to students. I'm not sure why, I guess there's some issues of : "Well, they come to learn, so we have the right to not pay them but use them instead, after all, they wanted it". 

*

Imagine they need RM 10 for daily commute to work : 

RM 10 x 6 (days a week, including half-day on Saturday) x 12 weeks =  RM 720

Imagine they are all so 'kesian' and only use RM 10 for breakfast, lunch and dinner :

RM 10 x 7 (days a week, including half-day on Saturday) x 12 weeks =  RM 840

The room they need to rent for the whole 3 months :

At least RM 200 - if lucky, in KL x 3 months = RM 600

Fees for their course :

RM 2000 

That's around RM 4000 +.

And the company they work for pay around RM 300, if they are lucky. 

If not, they don't get paid at all. 

How on earth did they think the students get their money from?

*

Companies need to at least provide breakfast and lunch for students. Also travel allowance. That much is more than enough to help a student building up his/her future. Just support the student's life for several months while they are working for you, it's a win-win situation. You are not teaching them rocket science, after all you are using them with their tiny bits of experience to complete small tasks. 

Universities need to stop taking money from students. What's with RM2000+ for an internship? Those "we can't change the fees, the system is fixed" is ridiculous. Forcing students to go for an internship is one thing, forcing them to pay so much is just unacceptable.

*