Government Urged to Prevent Cheating in 2026 UTBK

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - House of Representatives Chair Puan Maharani has urged the government to prevent cheating in the annual Computer-Based Written Examination (UTBK). This is because, year after year, cheating methods exploiting technology in the exam have become increasingly sophisticated. “The state needs to ensure that the space for cheating becomes narrower year after year, not just responding after violations occur. That means there must be mitigation,” Puan stressed in her statement on Thursday (23/4/2026). This phenomenon shows a recurring pattern with increasingly complex methods over time. “The recurring pattern with increasingly complex techniques indicates that the pressure of today’s educational competition has evolved in a way that demands more serious attention,” Puan said. “Every form of cheating that attempts to breach the system with the help of technology, fake identities, or substitute parties actually damages collective trust in the meritocracy mechanism,” Puan added. The government must tighten the UTBK monitoring system to maintain the integrity of selection for entry into state universities (PTN). She asked the organising committee and relevant ministries to use every loophole in cheating as material for comprehensive evaluation to improve the selection design going forward. “Given the increasingly evolving cheating methods, adaptation of the system and monitoring technology is needed. Moreover, in the current era of advancement, there are many means that enable cheating,” Puan said. The SNPMB Committee revealed this through a press conference broadcast live on the YouTube channel of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology’s science and technology division. “This morning until 09.00 WIB, we have received information on various types of cheating attempted by UTBK participants at several UTBK Centres,” said the General Chair of the 2026 SNPMB Responsible Team, Eduart Wolok, at the UTBK Central Media Centre at Jakarta State University (UNJ). At Unsulbar, a scheme using proxies as exam participants was also found. “Attempts at proxying by replacing participants were found. So deliberately, the same person who took the UTBK 2025 participates again in 2026 with a different name for the participant. So the person is the same, taking the exam in 2025 and 2026 for two names. This is definitely a proxy replacing,” Eduart explained. He said this proxy trick could be detected from evidence from last year developed in the investigation. Again, there were two women whose participant data was shown by the committee. In addition, cheating was also found at State University of Surabaya (Unesa), Diponegoro University (Undip), State University of Malang (UM), Airlangga University (Unair), and UPN Veteran East Java.