Unhas Denies Dropout and Suspension of Students for Criticising Free Nutritious Meals Programme

Universitas Hasanuddin (Unhas) has responded to a viral issue regarding the alleged dropout (DO) and suspension of students who criticised the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme. The issue recently went viral on social media. Unhas Head of Public Relations Ishaq Rahman stated that disinformation and hoaxes have been circulating across various social media accounts. According to his monitoring, several homeless media accounts were actively spreading this false information. “The emergence of the hoax issue began with a student protest at the Unhas Rectorate on Thursday, 11 June 2026. The action was peaceful, although it was interspersed with minor, tolerable actions involving damage to campus facilities,” Ishaq said in a statement on Monday (15/6/2026). Ishaq mentioned that during the protest, the university received the students and provided explanations regarding a number of criticisms and public queries. However, after the protest ended, an issue emerged that 28 Unhas students had been sanctioned with dropouts and some with suspensions. “There are parties who twisted the facts and built a new narrative through an information spinning process, where unrelated facts were made to appear connected. Factually, there are no dropout or suspension sanctions for students involved in the protest against MBG,” Ishaq stressed. He asserted that Unhas is not an anti-criticism institution. The university’s involvement in this priority programme is a form of higher education social responsibility, based on the ‘Impactful Campus’ paradigm and on academic and rational considerations. Ishaq explained that Unhas’s involvement in managing the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Unit (SPPG) is accompanied by a new approach. This step is an official, open policy that can be criticised. Observing the narrative developments on social media, the university urged parties deliberately spreading hoaxes and slander regarding dropout sanctions for students criticising MBG to immediately cease their actions. “This hoax and slander has the potential to harm Unhas’s institutional reputation, impacting thousands of academic community members and other related entities,” he said.