Beware of advertising war between private colleges
JAKARTA (JP): Spending five years of your life at college with no guarantee that you will get a job after you finish your studies is a daunting prospect, especially if you are not one of the 77,000 students who recently won places at state universities following this year's enrollment tests.
No wonder private universities and colleges are engaged in a war of advertising to offer the best programs and facilities to lure prospective students, especially those who did not get a seat at state universities.
Catchy words like "It only takes three years to get your undergraduate degree", "transferred students invited", "get two titles in one joint course with a foreign university", or "can move to co-partner foreign-based universities halfway" can easily be found in ads in newspapers.
"Students should beware of such alluring offers, as it is not that easy to get a good school and to complete a study program in such a short period," director general for higher education at the Ministry of National Education, Satryo Sumantri Brodjonegoro, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
"Good universities don't need such promotion. So it's good to suspect that there may be something untrue behind the advert. Maybe those universities are only after money," he added.
For some schools, enrollment is a good time to do business. Many people pursue academic skills and titles and are ready to spend a lot of money to pay, whatever the school name, for the fees required for registration, admission and stationery.
The government gives full authority to private universities to determine themselves the amount of tuition fees and other payment. There is no maximum legal amount that schools may ask for.
To avoid making the wrong choice, Satryo suggested that students first check whether the private university they intend to enter are licensed with the directorate general or the local Private Universities Coordinating Body (Kopertis).
"Just access the website http://www.dikti.org to find that out or at http://www.ban-pt.or.id for the accreditation status of each of the programs provided at the universities to see whether they are really credible," he said.
The accreditation status is stated in alphabetical ranks, from A for the best courses to D for the least favorable.
Satryo also cautioned students wanting to take bilingual or joint courses offered by both state and private universities, which claim to be run in partnership with foreign-based universities.
He said that most of these type of universities fail to report such a joint program to the directorate general and their claim was therefore questionable.
"Of the many schools advertising their programs in newspapers, only a few of them have obtained our approval. Such joint programs should be reported with us so we can check what kind of partnership and whether the foreign partners are credible.
"Although there have been no complaints as yet from the public, we should be careful because it is possible that the school management are con artists. If that is the case, the resulting bad image would adversely affect universities which do have such joint programs," he remarked.
Satryo underlined the need for all universities to better their performance and to uphold public accountability since they are corporate bodies. (bby)