House Speaker Urges Evaluation of University Admission Selection System

House Speaker Puan Maharani has expressed regret over the large number of prospective students who failed to re-register after being accepted into state universities. She described the phenomenon as unfortunate, as it wastes valuable opportunities that could have been taken by other candidates. Puan has asked the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology to evaluate these findings. “Information regarding participants who did not re-register for state universities should be used as a momentum to evaluate how the nation defines the success of its higher education system,” she said in a written statement on Friday, 26 June 2026. According to Puan, the public has so far paid more attention to the number of participants who successfully pass the state university selection process. Yet, a more important measure for her is how many Indonesian children can actually continue their higher education after obtaining that opportunity. “The success of the selection system should not stop at the announcement of the results. The state also needs to ensure that every participant who has secured a place at a state university has an equal opportunity to truly utilise it,” said the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle politician. Recently, news circulated that around 60,000 prospective students from the Achievement-Based National Selection (SNBP) pathway did not re-register. However, the General Chair of the New Student Admissions National Selection (SNPMB) Responsible Team, Eduart Wolok, clarified that this figure was the accumulation of prospective students who did not re-register from the SNBP, the Test-Based National Selection (SNBT), and the independent selection pathways managed by each university. Puan considers the figure of 60,000 students who did not re-register to be large, regardless of their selection pathway. She encouraged the government to conduct an in-depth study as an evaluation step for future new student admissions. “There must be an evaluation of the new student admission system. The government must be able to map out where the missed points are that cause so many participants who have passed state university selection to choose not to proceed to the next stage,” said the daughter of former President Megawati Soekarnoputri. Puan stated that if economic barriers are the cause of prospective students cancelling their studies, the government needs to synchronise the quota of Smart Indonesia Card (KIP) recipients with the SNBP quota. This includes synchronisation between national selection results and the determination of educational aid, simplification of the verification process for KIP Kuliah recipients, and strengthening support services for prospective students from vulnerable families. She views this as indicating that the problem is no longer in the selection process, but in the continuity of national education policy. “Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation of the transition chain from the selection process to lectures is an important step that must be taken,” said the former Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture for the 2014–2019 period. Puan also asked the government and the new student admissions committee to build a national tracking system to detect participants who do not continue with registration. The aim is for the government to have a measurable database on the causes of new prospective students’ registration failures, so that government intervention can be more targeted. “Such intervention can be in the form of expanding educational aid, perfecting the selection system, or strengthening information services for prospective students,” Puan said. Puan believes that a nation’s greatest investment does not rest on the state university entrance selection process, but rather on anticipating that no young talent loses their future due to barriers that should be surmountable by government policy.