KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — Popular TV personality and actress Daphne Iking said today she took on three jobs to finance her tertiary education in response to a growing number of students raging over their high living costs.

The Sabah-born who has both a Bachelor’s and Masters degrees in communications from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) tweeted that she had worked as a cabaret dancer, a part-time tutor and also a cigarette sales promoter to cover her college tuition fees, food and accommodation costs while a student.

“I was a cabaret dancer, part time tutor, and a sales promoter for BAT to pay for both my degrees, rent and food,” she wrote on her Twitter handle @DalphCLPT, with the Bahasa Malaysia hashtag topic #mahasiswalapar, which translates to “hungry undergraduates” in English.

The hashtag topic has been gaining traction on the microblogging network in the last few days, following media reports of some public university students too cash-strapped to afford three square meals a day.

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Last week, Malay daily Harian Metro reported a UKM student had ruptured her intestines due to poor eating habits as she only had RM30 to spend on food each week.

Since then, many students have come out with similar complaints.

In response, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh promised to look into the issue personally so that no student will go hungry, though he also pointed out that there were various options and avenues available to undergraduates to cover their food bill, including university welfare groups and on-campus part-time jobs.

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Yesterday, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that the reports of starving students may have been sensationalised and may not reflective of the real state of their finances.

“I’m not saying all students live easy and no one suffers, but I don’t think there is any student that is starving,” he said, citing various initiatives by the government and non-governmental bodies to provide for underprivileged students.