Mataram college changes name

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara: The government will go ahead with its plan to change the name of the National Islamic Religious Institute to the State Islamic High Institution despite protests by students, Antara said.

Some students had threatened to resign or stage a sit-in if the government went ahead with the plan, the news agency said.

The chief of the province's Religious Affairs Office, said on Friday that his office would nevertheless write to the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Jakarta about the students' feelings.

The name change entails severing ties with the institute's parent institution in Surabaya. (emb)