UGM says admission fee of Rp 5m justified

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Rector of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Sofian Effendi denied accusations that the institution was turning into a business venture which charged too much money.

Sofian said on Saturday the university would maintain its commitment to ordinary people despite accepting new students who were willing to pay a minimum Rp 5 million (US$609) as an admission fee.

"The change in the status from previously a state-owned university into an independent legal entity doesn't change our mission as a non-profit oriented institution. People have been mistakenly interpreting this," Sofian said during a press conference held in response to public outcry against commercial program initiated by some state universities, including UGM.

The Bandung Institute of Technology is asking for Rp 45 million, while the University of Indonesia is demanding Rp 40 million.

Starting this academic year, UGM requires new students to pay Rp 5 million just for the admission fee to increase the university's educational quality. Sofian said, however, students from poor families could ask for total or partial exemption, while those from rich families often were happy to pay more.

So far, according to Sofian, of some 4,000 students who passed the UGM selection test, only 26 percent paid more than Rp 5 million for the admission fee and 51 percent paid exactly Rp 5 million. The rest were either partially or totally exempted from paying the fee due to economic hardship.

"The funds we have raised so far from the admission fee is estimated to account for just over two percent of this year's budget of some Rp 553 billion," Sofian said.

He said it was impossible for state universities in the country that currently had over 50,000 students to improve quality due to budget constraints.

"Nationally, the budget for the higher education sub-sector is only 0.25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product or some Rp 4.3 trillion in 2002. Compare that to the budget of just the University of Tokyo. With only about 20,000 students, its budget is 124 billion yen or about Rp 12 trillion," Sofian said.

He said the average yearly tuition fee for each student in the country would increase to Rp 18 million in the coming academic year.

Currently, it was only Rp 11 million per student at UGM and Rp 17 million per student at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

"While in Malaysia, where living costs are about the same as here, it averages Rp 154 million a year for each student. So, don't be surprised that the education quality in Malaysia is far above ours," said Sofian.

Of the Rp 11 million for tuition at UGM, he said, only about 9 percent was paid by the students while the rest was subsidized by the government and the university. In other words, UGM students were only required to pay about Rp 50,000 per semester, or only some Rp 4,500 per class.

"Now you see our tuition fee at UGM is quite cheap, even cheaper than a bowl of meatballs," Sofian said.