Ministry Clarifies 60,000 Student Withdrawal Figure Is Misleading
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Retechnology (Kemdiktisaintek) has clarified that information suggesting approximately 60,000 students were accepted but failed to re-register does not reflect the actual situation.
In an official statement in Jakarta on Friday, the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Brian Yuliarto, explained that the data causing public concern resulted from an evaluation of the 2025 student admissions, not 2026. The National Student Admissions Selection (SNPMB) process for 2026 is currently ongoing and has not yet concluded.
According to official data from the SNPMB Committee, the figure of approximately 60,000 circulating in the public sphere is an accumulation of two components: 42,315 unfilled seats and 17,816 accepted participants who did not complete re-registration.
The first component relates to university capacity. In 2025, the total capacity provided through the SNBP, SNBT, and Independent Selection tracks reached 627,957 seats. From that number, 585,642 participants were declared accepted, leaving 42,315 seats (6.7 per cent) unfilled.
“Universities continue to apply quality standards during the selection process, so seats that do not meet the qualifications are left unfilled solely to meet capacity targets. This policy is a form of commitment to maintaining the quality of higher education delivery, ensuring that graduates possess competencies that meet the needs of society, the workforce, and industry,” said Minister Brian.
The second component involves participants who were declared accepted but did not re-register. Out of the total 5lar 585,642 participants accepted in 2025, 567,826 participants, or 97.2 per cent, completed re-registration and proceeded to become new students. Meanwhile, 17,816 participants, or approximately 2.8 per cent, decided not to re-register.
Based on analysis by the SNPMB Committee, several factors influence this condition, including participants being accepted into programmes that were not their primary choice and thus choosing other selection tracks, participants being accepted into government-affiliated colleges or other ministry/agency institutions, as well as various personal and family considerations.
“Kemdiktisaintek emphasises that the verification process for the KIP Kuliah (Scholarship) is conducted to ensure precision, so that government assistance is provided to prospective students who truly come from the families in greatest need,” said Brian.
The Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology explained that most of the figure represents capacity that was unfilled from the outset because universities are maintaining academic quality standards, while the number of participants who did not re-register is only 17,816, or 2.8 per cent.
Conversely, 97.2 per cent of participants who were declared accepted did indeed re-register and continue their higher education, indicating that the majority of prospective students who gained entry to university utilised the opportunity effectively.
“Higher education must be accessible to more of Indonesia’s children, but at the same time, academic quality must be maintained. Therefore, we continue to strengthen various affirmation schemes, educational assistance, a fair UKT (Tuition Fee) system, and the refinement of the admission system to make it more inclusive, targeted, and capable of meeting the nation’s development needs,” concluded Brian Yuliarto.