UGM reveals new admission scheme

UGM reveals new admission scheme

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University (UGM) plans to introduce a
new admission scheme for wealthy students this academic year,
with fees reaching over Rp 80 million (US$8,888), in a bid to
make the cross-subsidy system work better, a university official
said on Sunday.

Under the scheme, called Scholastic Aptitude Selection, the
new students accepted through the scheme would be required to pay
higher admission fees compared to those accepted through the
university's regular self-designed entrance tests as well as
those accepted through the national selection tests.

UGM's deputy rector Sudjarwadi, who is in charge of the
university's academic affairs, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday
the new scheme was specially designed to select students of high
scholastic aptitude, who are willing to spend more on the
admission fees.

"Some of the money (collected through this scheme) will be
spent for cross-subsidies," Sudjarwadi said on the sidelines of
an official visit to some of the locations in Yogyakarta where
the regular written entrance tests for this academic year were
held.

As many as 33,320 high school students took part in the
written tests held simultaneously on Sunday in nine cities across
the country, including Yogyakarta. The other cities were Jakarta,
Cirebon, Tangerang, Lampung, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Banjarmasin,
and Balikpapan.

Sudjarwadi said the new scheme was designed following a
ministerial decree sent to the university earlier this year,
which allows universities to decide the proportion of students
according to economic status of the students' parents on their
own.

The Ministry of Education and Culture has determined that the
education unit cost for tertiary education was Rp 18.2 million
per year, per student. The students are classified into four
different categories.

The first category comprises students who are completely
exempted from paying admission or tuition fees; second category
students pay below the education unit cost for tertiary
education; third category students pay the regular amount; and
fourth category students will be asked to pay up to Rp 80
million.

"Those accepted through the Scholastic Aptitude Selection
scheme will be classified as fourth category students,"
Sudjarwadi explained.

He said that with the Scholastic Aptitude Selection, UGM
currently has two admission schemes designed for the fourth
category students. The other scheme accepted continuing-education
students sent by regional governments, regional companies or
regional governmental institutions.

For this academic year, the university will take some 7,000
new students, of which 18 percent will be accepted through the
national selection test, and the remaining 82 percent through the
university's self-designed entrance tests.

Currently, 508 students have been accepted through the
Scholastic Aptitude Selection scheme while 63 other students
would study at the university as continuing-education students

The lowest admission fee for Scholastic Aptitude Selection is
Rp 8 million per student -- for mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and statistics study programs, and the highest, at Rp 80 million,
is for the school of medicine.

Admission fees for continuing-education students, range from
Rp 10 million per student -- for mathematics, chemistry and
statistic study programs, while the highest is Rp 100 million for
the school of medicine.

The admission fee for students who are accepted through
regular and national test schemes are between Rp 5 million and Rp
20 million, except for those who are completely exempted from
paying the admission fee.

"The cross subsidy policy so far has proved to be effective in
increasing the number of students from economically disadvantaged
families to study at UGM," said Sudjarwadi.

He said that 30 percent of the university's approximately
30,000 students come from poor families.

"The main idea (of the cross-subsidy policy) is to increase
the access of students from poor families while at the same time
increasing the revenue needed to add more facilities at the
university," Sudjarwadi said.