BPS Urges KIP Kuliah Students to Update Data via DTSEN Amid Scholarship Threats

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has requested that prospective students encountering issues with sudden changes to their desil status in the KIP Kuliah Programme immediately update their data through the official Cek DTSEN (National Single Socio-Economic Data) channel. Desil is a ranking of a family’s social and economic status used as a reference for government assistance, based on data verified jointly by the BPS, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and relevant district/city and provincial authorities. BPS Head Amalia Adininggar stated during a press conference following a meeting with the Minister of Social Affairs in Jakarta on Wednesday that her agency had received reports of prospective students, including one at Padjadjaran University (Unpad), who were at risk of having their studies cancelled due to these data dynamics. The findings originated from a data verification report for prospective students on the Padjadjaran University Independent Selection (SMUP) pathway, which discovered in mid-June that several new students were declared no longer eligible as beneficiaries of the Kartu Indonesia Pintar Kuliah (KIP-K) tuition assistance programme by the West Java campus authorities. “We have conveyed this, we have also received that information and we have already advised them to immediately update their data through the Cek DTSEN channel. We will evaluate it promptly,” she said in response to journalists’ questions. According to Amalia, the BPS needs to examine and investigate the situation further in the field to verify the accuracy of the information and the poverty data indicators referred to by the students concerned. “It is not that there are no errors, but we must first see if it is indeed true, whether what the students mean is correct, and where they obtained that information. That is what we must check and clarify first,” she explained. Therefore, the BPS is urging prospective students experiencing similar obstacles to optimise the use of the data checking channel to submit a swift clarification and updating process. Regarding public concerns about the relatively limited university registration deadline, the BPS has assured that the socio-economic data updating and evaluation process will run in parallel with a flexible acceptance timeline. Amalia explained that, referring to provisions issued by the Ministry of Higher Education (Kemendikti), the registration and verification period for the KIP Kuliah assistance programme is actually still open for a considerable length of time. “There is a timeframe from the Minister of Higher Education until October for the KIP registration process,” she said, adding that through intensive coordination with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the BPS is committed to maintaining the validity of the national welfare database to ensure all government social assistance and educational affirmation programmes are accurately targeted.