UI students to launch boycott over extra fee

JAKARTA (JP): About 3,000 students from the University of Indonesia (UI) plan to boycott classes beginning Monday after a meeting they held with the UI rectorate ended in deadlock on Friday.

Secretary of UI students executive board Indra Falatehan said the decision was taken after the rectorate refused to scrap a policy making students pay an extra fee, called the Education Quality Improvement Fund (DPKP).

"They (the rectorate) walked out of the meeting room when we asked for a clarification about whether they were going to cancel the policy," Indra told The Jakarta Post.

Students from 1999 onward have to pay an extra fee beside the Rp 500,000 (US$60) tuition fee per semester.

The DPKP is Rp 1 million for students at the School of Engineering and School of Maths and Exact Science (MIPA), and Rp 750,000 for School of Social Sciences students.

Last week, about 700 UI students said they were ready to be expelled rather than pay the extra fee, which they have to pay to be registered for the upcoming semester. Registration closed on Friday.

They questioned the transparency of the uses of the fund. Many claimed they could not afford to pay.

In Friday's meeting at the Ministry of National Education, director general for higher education Satryo Soemantri said the rectorate had agreed to allow students who refused to pay the DPKP to attend classes.

"But that was not what we asked for. We want the policy to be called off until an audit is carried out on the proposed uses of the fund," Indra said.

Assistant to UI rector for student affairs Umar Mansur said earlier that the extra fee was needed because UI was struggling to cover financial shortages after cuts in government funding.

Government funding dropped from Rp 14 billion plus a Rp 3 billion operational fund last year to Rp 9 billion with no operational fund this year, Umar claimed.

He explained that the cost of educating a student came to an average of Rp 10 million per year. The university, he said, served an average of between 14,000 and 15,000 students per year.

However, Satryo said at the meeting that the government had allocated Rp 60 billion for the prestigious state-owned university.

After Satryo's announcement about the Rp 60 billion fund, the rectorate explained that they needed other sources to cover costs since 91.18 percent of government funding is used for staff, including lecturers' pay. (jaw)