Beware of advertising war between private colleges
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)