Institutes, universities committed to helping poor students

Institutes, universities committed to helping poor students

Theresia Sufa and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bogor/Bandung

The Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) said on Tuesday that it
had sent out letters to provincial governments to encourage them
to assist 10 poor students who wished to enter the IPB but had no
money.

The 10 students had actually passed the admission requirements
set by the institute and had been offered places, but were unable
to take these up due to financial constraints.

They still have until August if they want to sit the first
semester of this year.

"We have sent letters to them (the provincial governments),
but they have yet to reply to these letters, with the exception
of the West Java provincial government. Sadly, the provincial
government suggested that we seek alternative funding for the
students in the province," said Rimbawan, the director of student
affairs at the institute.

The 10 students in question come from various provinces
nationwide, including Lampung, Jakarta, West Java, East Java and
Central Java.

Rimbawan said that they were so poor they could barely cover
their day-to-day expenses.

He said that similar cases happened every year. Last year,
about 10 would-be students also told the institute that they were
unable to take up offers of places in the institute due to
financial constraints.

This has prompted the institute to seek alternative funding
sources to help such students. One of the institute's donors is
Darryl Lund, a lecturer at Wisconsin University in the U.S., who
donated US$1,000 to the institute.

Herman, a staff officer in the university's admission section,
said that one of the 10 students, Asriani, had visited the IPB
campus recently to say that she and her family had decided not to
persevere with her attempt to study at the institute. Asriani's
father is a motorcycle taxi driver in Sukabumi regency, West Java
province.

Separately, Padjadjaran University (Unpad) in Bandung said
that it did not have a program that was similar to that of the
IPB, under which the institute selects the best senior high
school graduates nationwide without a test. But, Hadi Suprapto
Arifin, a spokesman for the university, said on Tuesday that the
university still helped disadvantaged but bright students.

He said that each year the university allowed more than 100
poor students to pay their tuition and other university fees by
installment after the students had been admitted to the
university.

The Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has a similar scheme
to Unpad's. But, the ITB's scheme is more progressive than
Unpad's.

Adang Surahman, the deputy ITB rector for student affairs,
said that the institute cooperated with provincial governments
throughout the nation so that the latter could pay for clever but
poor students to study at the institute.