UI students object to extra school fees

JAKARTA (JP): Students of the University of Indonesia (UI) demanded on Monday an end to extra school fees which have been charged to cover financial shortages resulting from the economic recession.

Starting last year, besides basic school fees, new students of the School of Exact Sciences and Engineering had to pay Rp 1 million (US$117.65) additional expenses per semester, while their counterparts studying social sciences had to pay an extra Rp 750,000 (US$88.25).

Altogether a student of the School of Exact Science paid a total of Rp 2.15 million (US$252.94) per semester. Social science students were charged Rp 1.95 million (US$229.4) each for the same period.

The extra school fee, called the Quality of Education Improvement Fund (DPKP), was introduced to help poor students finance their studies under a cross-subsidy scheme.

"The allocation of the fund is neither clear nor transparent. They said it was used for computers, overhead projectors and other equipment. But isn't the budget for such equipment already available?" head of the students executive board Taufik Riyadi said.

Taufik also called on his fellow students and the upcoming new students not to pay the DPKP.

The fund, Taufik said, is said to be allocated for the lecturers but some of them admitted they did not receive it.

"Some 75 percent of the fund was given to each faculty, and the rest was kept by the rectorate. But when the senate checked it out, some of the fund was still kept in the rectorate," he said.

He said another irregularity occurred when the school of literature used the fund for a visit to a tourist resort because they did not know what to do with the money.

In his response to the students' demand, Assistant to Rector Umar Mansur said the DPKP was aimed to help the cash-strapped university survive.

"Our budget was running out due to the monetary crisis in 1998. We were unable to buy new equipment or chemical substances which were bought in U.S. dollars. So we decided to adopt DPKP," he said.

Despite the protest, Umar said that the DPKP will remain intact.

The prerequisite of the imposition of the extra fee is that none of students who cannot afford to pay has to quit, according to Umar. (09)