Failure rate keeps state university enrollment down

Failure rate keeps state university enrollment down

Sari P. Setiogi and P.C. Naommy, Jakarta

The improved quality of private universities in recent years has
encouraged many students to no longer focus all their energies on
gaining admission to state universities, education experts said
on Thursday.

They were commenting on the declining number of students
taking part in this year's two-day state university admission
examinations (SPMB), which started on Wednesday.

"Many private universities are of better quality, we know
that. Some even have prestigious schools that the state ones
don't have," education expert Arief Rachman told The Jakarta
Post.

Apart from that, he said, students have become more realistic
about the difficulties involved in passing the state entrance
examinations.

"Students today are also more realistic. They are fully aware
that their chances of failure in the SPMB are about 80 percent.
Only a limited number of places are available in state
universities. So they often prefer to enroll in private ones,"
said Arief.

A similar view was expressed by Ridla Bakri, the SPMB Jakarta
committee secretary, who said that the improving quality of
private universities was attracting increasing numbers of
students.

Private universities, which held their admission tests
earlier, could have attracted many more students, he added.

Around 344,000 students participated in the SPMB around the
country this year, down from 350,306 in 2003. The number of
candidates stood at 398,589 in 2002.

About 80,000 places are up for grabs in 48 state universities
throughout Indonesia this year, given a ratio of applicants to
those gaining places of about 1:6.

In Jakarta, at least 52,725 students sat the SPMB last year.
However, this year the figure had dropped to 48,695 candidates.

The biggest decrease in candidates was seen in Yogyakarta,
where a drop of 25 percent to 16,171 candidates was recorded,
said Eko Budihardjo, the SPMB committee chairman for Region II,
which covers Central Java, East Java, Bali, Kalimantan and
Sulawesi.

This was followed by Surakarta, where the number of candidates
was down by 9.5 percent, he said.

Eko agreed that the decline was due to the fact that many
students from well-off families preferred to continue their
studies at private or overseas universities.

"And those from poor families might prefer to take diploma
courses that are better capable of guaranteeing them jobs soon
after they finish their studies," he said.

Meanwhile, two exam cheats were caught in the North Sumatra
capital of Medan on Thursday after hiring substitutes to sit the
tests for them, while in Surabaya, a female student was caught in
possession of a cellular phone during the tests.

Separately, in response to a public outcry over the high cost
of education in state universities, Director General of Higher
Education Satrio Soemantri Brodjonegoro said the government would
not interfere in internal university affairs.

"The imposition of admission and tuition fees is the result of
the policies of individual universities. We can't intervene," he
said.

However, Satrio said that high costs should not negate the
right of all citizens to an education. "We have provided access,
but, of course, it's not for free," he added.

He admitted that education was currently not cheap, but that
this was because universities needed to provide adequate
infrastructure to improve the competencies and quality of their
graduates.

According to Satrio, average university fees were around Rp 16
million (US$1,883) per annum per student, regardless of the
course being studied.

High admission and tuition fees have prevented many bright but
poor students from gaining admission to university. The
University of Indonesia, for example, requires students to pay
admission fees of between Rp 5 and Rp 25 million, and tuition
fees of between Rp 1.23 and Rp 1.75 million per semester.