UGM remains a people's university

YOGYAKARTA: Gadjah Mada University (UGM) has said most of its 2003/2004 new students come from low-and middle-income families, reconfirming itself to remain the people's university.

The announcement was to play down controversies over state universities becoming commercial as they offered seats to students from wealthy families.

"Around 77 percent of all the new students who have registered themselves with Gadjah Mada come from families with an average income of Rp 1,350,000 per month. They pay up to Rp 5 million for admission fees, while in some cases the fees are waived," said Tony Atyanto Dharoko, assistant to the UGM deputy rector overseeing educational operations and quality control.

He said only some 20 percent of students paid up to Rp 15 million for admission fees, nearly 2 percent were charged Rp 25 million, and the rest paid between Rp 30 million and Rp 100 million.

"No one paid above Rp 100 million for admission fees," said Tony, adding that only six students so far were recorded to have paid between Rp 70 million and Rp 100 million.

He said students from poor families were welcome to ask for either partial or full exemption from the admission fee or submitted requests for scholarships.

UGM has accepted 4,180 new students through its own admission test, the results of which were announced last May. Some 76,000 students attended the test.

Around 1,344 other students were accepted through the national admission test, the results of which were announced on Monday. Almost 22,500 students chose UGM when attending the test. --JP