More students shun state universities
More students shun state universities
JAKARTA (JP): The number of students writing last week's
nationwide admission tests for state universities declined by 8
percent as more high school graduates turn towards private
universities.
Competition is still stiff with 378,743 participants vying for
one of 70,000 seats at the 43 state universities. There were
412,638 participants in 1995.
State universities, particularly the big ones like the
University of Indonesia in Jakarta, the Bandung Institute of
Technology, Diponegoro University in Semarang and Gadjah Mada
University in Yogyakarta, are regarded as centers of excellence.
Besides their academic reputation, these universities are
heavily subsidized by the government and therefore charge tuition
fees far lower than private universities.
Soesmalijah Soewondo, a member of the national test committee,
told The Jakarta Post yesterday that this year many graduates
simply decided to shun the test and apply directly to private
universities instead.
Many private universities have become as competitive as state
universities, said the staff lecturer at the University of
Indonesia's School of Psychology.
More people have also opted for shorter courses that offer
practical workplace skills rather than pursuing higher education,
she said.
The number of private universities increased from 1,076 in
1993 to 1,228 this year. Altogether they offer 1.3 million seats,
twice as many as those offered by state universities, according
to Ministry of Education and Culture data.
Test participants are divided into three regions according to
where they live: Group A, comprising 17 universities in Jakarta,
Sumatra, West Kalimantan and West Java; Group B comprising nine
universities in Central Java, Yogyakarta, South Kalimantan,
Central Kalimantan and East Kalimantan; and Group C comprising 17
universities in East Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Maluku
and Irian Jaya.
Group C saw the steepest decline in the number of participants
this year, from 110,602 participants to 99,340. Group A decreased
from 207,281 to 189,101 and Group B fell from 94,755 to 90,302.
Soesmalijah said the Jakarta exam committee caught three
people allegedly writing the tests for other people.
"We have turned over one of them to the police while the other
two are still being investigated," she said.
The exam committee has tried to punish students who hire
jockeys to write their tests. Jockeys are known to get
cooperation of insiders.
A total of 593 jockeys were caught last year.
Soesmalijah said tests written by jockeys would not be marked
and the names of the recalcitrant students would be dropped from
the entrance race. (31)