Over 470,000 sit university admission exams

JAKARTA (JP): Nearly 472,000 senior high school graduates throughout the country, excluding riot-torn provinces of Maluku, North Maluku and Aceh, turned up for the entrance exams for state universities on Tuesday.

The national admission test committee executive secretary, Soemalijah Soewondo, said the students competed for approximately 74,000 seats at 45 universities.

Results of the test will be announced on Aug. 7.

The number of the participants dropped slightly by 1.8 percent from last year's figure, 480,218, Soemalijah said.

According to the current regulation, the participants are allowed to choose two different faculties or universities. They are also allowed to choose universities outside their hometowns.

Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin said entrance tests in Maluku would be delayed indefinitely and the state Pattimura University there will be divided into two following the division of the province into Maluku and North Maluku.

Most of the university campus in Ambon was razed by an armed mob on Tuesday.

In Aceh, the test is delayed until Saturday as fire razed the Madjid Ibrahim student gymnasium hall at state Syiah Kuala University on Monday night, burning some 10,000 documents and the exam papers.

Aceh Besar police chief Superintendent Sayed Husaini said preliminary investigation showed that the fire was due to a short electric circuit problem.

Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta plans to accept 5,208 students, including 986 athletes and students who will be recruited through special tests held in their respective provinces.

In Surabaya, 193 of the 33,510 registrants failed to turn up. "The reason for their absence is still not clear," said Nadjadji Anwar, who was in charge of the test.

In Medan, University of North Sumatra rector, Chairuddin Lubis, complained many participants came late because they were confused finding the venues for the exams.

In Banjarmasin, Lambung Mangkurat University discovered that 10 percent of 609 applicants for the special admission test (PMDK) are drug addicts.

"Ten percent of them, based on urine tests, are positively drugs users," Antara quoted local officials as saying.

In Semarang, the test took place at the two campuses and high school buildings in the Central Java capital of Semarang.(49/50/har/45/edt/sur/prb)