Over 82,000 pass university admission tests

Over 82,000 pass university admission tests

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A total 82,190 senior high school graduates secured a place at 49
state universities across the country, the national selection
committee announced on Thursday.

The qualifiers account for 4.1 percent of 337,707 students,
including 29 disabled entrants, who sat the national admission
tests on July 14 and July 15, the tests taking place
simultaneously across the country?.

Secretary of the selection committee Soesmalijah Soeswondo
said the results of the entrance tests would be announced on
Friday via national print media and the committee's website
(www.spmb.or.id).

She said that, unlike in previous years, the committee would
open information counters at the University of Indonesia (UI) in
Depok, West Java, the Jakarta State University in Rawamangun,
East Jakarta, and the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic Institute
in Ciputat, South Jakarta. Previously, a counter was set up at
the Senayan sports complex, Central Jakarta.

The Ministry of National Education announced in June that
there were 1,06 million senior high school graduates, down from
around 1.1 million the previous year.

Soesmalijah said the number of participants in the national
university admission tests this year fell by 4.2 percent, from
350,306 in 2003, due to a decline in the number of high school
graduates and because more state universities also organized
their own entrance tests.

The individual selection was carried out before the national
final exams for senior high school students. Those who were
selected were required to pay much more than those who passed the
national admission tests.

UI, for example, admitted 20 percent of its new students
through its own selection tests. They have been charged from Rp
25 million (US$2,717) to Rp 75 million in entrance fees.

The fees for new students selected via national admission
tests range from Rp 5 million to Rp 25 million, effective this
year.

Hundreds of UI students staged a protest on Monday at the
university management's decision to raise tuition fees.

Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Yogyakarta, is accepting only 18
percent of new students via national admission tests this year.
The remainder have been admitted through its privately run
selection program, which required new students to pay as much as
Rp 100 million.

Both UI and UGM are among five state universities that have
changed their status to autonomous institutions, which allows
them to raise education funds from the public and manage the
funds themselves. Consequently, the government has cut and will
gradually scrap its subsidy to them.

The national committee in charge of university admission tests
allowed 3,000 high school graduates from poor families across the
country to sit the tests free of charge this year.