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.