Increasing academic fees considered fair
The Jakarta Post Jakarta/Bogor/Yogyakarta
The recent protest staged by University of Indonesia (UI) students, over what they called costly admission fees, seems unjustifiable when UI fees are compared with those of other universities.
As of this year, new students at UI must pay an admission fee of between Rp 5 million (US$562) and Rp 25 million. In addition, those taking natural sciences pay a tuition fee of Rp 1.475 million per semester and those majoring in social sciences, Rp 1.275 million a semester.
UI director of academic affairs Muhammad Anis said the university had decided to raise admission fees as the annual subsidy from the government, which amounts to Rp 76 billion, was not enough to cover the cost of maintaining buildings and other infrastructure, and paying employees.
Article 24 of Law No. 20/2003 on the national education system allows universities to collect public funds and manage themselves.
Effective this year, a UI student needs between Rp 2.5 million to Rp 9.2 million annually, depending on their choice of study. Students may have their entrance fee waived if they submit a letter from their subdistrict chief stating that they come from a poor family. They must enclose their parents' salary slips and the last three month's electricity bills to be eligible for special consideration.
Like other state universities, the UI employs qualified lecturers and professors. Anis said the UI also provided students with computers, laboratories and research facilities.
"We understand the students' protest, but we have no choice. We need to stay up to date in order to compete with other universities," said Anis, citing the high cost of computers and other equipment.
UI students pay more than those at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) in West Java, who pay between Rp 2.5 million and Rp 3.3 million per year. The IPB receives a government subsidy of Rp 120 billion a year, allowing it to scrap admission fees. It only charge new students a building maintenance fee of between Rp 100,000 and Rp 3 million.
However, when compared to students of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Central Java, the cost of education at the UI is slightly lower.
Like the UI, the UGM obliges students to pay admission fees of up to Rp 20 million. Aside from a fixed tuition fee amounting to Rp 500,000 per semester, UGM students of natural sciences have to pay Rp 75,000 per credit, and social science students, Rp 65,000 per credit.
UGM students' yearly fees range from Rp 3.52 million to Rp 9.15 million.
Protests have not been heard from students of the UGM -- the country's oldest state university -- over the cost of education there.
When compared to students of private universities, which do not enjoy a government subsidy, UI students pay less.
New students of Trisakti University in Grogol, West Jakarta, for example, have to pay admission fees ranging from Rp 6.5 million to Rp 45 million, depending on the results of their entrance tests and the schools they go to.
They pay a total of between Rp 10 million and Rp 24 million per year -- depending on their majors -- as they are charged fixed tuition fees of between Rp 1.75 million and Rp 4 million per semester, plus Rp 110,000 for each credit unit they take.
Admission fees at another private university, Atma Jaya, range from between Rp 6.5 million and Rp 55 million, depending on the results of a student's entrance test. In total students pay between Rp 7 million and Rp 23 million per year.