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.