'Cross-subsidies' for private colleges

'Cross-subsidies' for private colleges

JAKARTA (JP): Wealthier private universities will soon be
requested to help less-advanced ones as a way to check a
perceived quality gap.

These "cross-subsidies" are among the programs to be developed
by the Consultative Forum for Private Universities, which
concluded its third national congress yesterday.

The newly-elected chairman of the forum, Bunyamin Ramto, said
yesterday that the forum would also explore the possibility of
gathering public funds for the programs.

Among the first steps to be taken by the forum is the
establishment of an information system for private-universities,
he said. "In doing so, we hope to see clearly the problems each
private university is facing," he said.

Bunyamin replaced Moeslim Tahir as chairman of the forum.

Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro said in
a ceremony to swear in Bunyamin that private universities varied
greatly both in the quantity and quality of students.

"This circumstance represents a major challenge for the
forum," he said. The forum should draw up "realistic" programs to
address the situation, he added.

He asked the forum's central board to heed the aspirations of
its member universities, and to ensure these coincided with "the
public's aspirations".

"Newly elected board members are often unrealistic because
they seem to forget that they only have four years in a term...
The first thing they should do is identify what the public wants
and what the universities want," Wardiman said.

He promised that the government would help the forum as much
as possible.

"We will be transparent in our policies so that the
universities know what we expect from them and vice-versa," he
said.

He reminded the forum members that the most important goal was
to improve the quality of the universities and to ensure that
students benefited, while the universities' investments could
bear fruit.

The government issued last year a decree that there be a
representative of the forum in every private university. This
move was met with strong opposition from critics and legislators
who said it would simply become a form of government intervention
in private universities.

Bambang Soehendro, the ministry's Director General for Higher
Education, said that all private universities were required to
have a representative of the forum within, at the latest, three
years from now.

"I don't think there is any way the universities can object,
because it is a rule and rules must be obeyed," he said.

There are presently 1,164 private universities in Indonesia
with more than 1.5 million students, which is more than twice the
number attending state universities. (pwn)