Universities desperate for new students
Universities desperate for new students
Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
A lack of students might cause 53 of the 106 private universities
in Yogyakarta go bankrupt this year because they could not afford
to meet operational costs.
"In order to survive, a private university should get at least
100 new students (per year). Anything less than that, and the
university will not be able to cover operational costs," said
head of the Private Universities Association, Sugiyanto.
He said that last year, only 25 percent of 106 private
universities did not get enough new students. "This situation
might cause dozens of private universities close down," Sugiyanto
said.
Deputy rector of Widya Mataram University, Martadani, who is
in charge of new student registrations, said the university's
five schools and eight study programs could actually accommodate
500 new students but so far, only 100 students had registered.
"In fact, school fees here are not expensive. Every new
student only pays Rp 1.7 million (US$178) for a social science
program and Rp 1.8 million for science program," Martadani said.
He added that there were three schools -- agricultural
technology, industrial technology and sociology -- that were in
dire need of students.
A lack of new students was also being experienced by the
popular Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University.
The university's spokesperson, Budi, told The Jakarta Post
that the university's seven schools and 16 study programs could
accommodate 2,500 new students.
"But even after the second registration period recently, newly
registered students still number below 2,000 and may force us to
start a third registration phase. In previous years, we always
got more students than we could accommodate," he said.
Public relations officer of the Indonesian Islamic University,
Akhmad Muftizar, said that from the university's nine schools and
23 study programs, some of them were still waiting for more
students.
Akhmad said the university had set up special registration
line for new students in several schools, such as the civil
engineering school and industrial technology school.
Both Budi and Akhmad blamed high education costs that made
parents reluctant to send their children on to universities.
"Moreover, many cities now, like Pekalongan and Cirebon, have
their own private universities. Thus parents prefer to send their
children to study at those universities rather than sending them
to another city which would certainly be more costly," he said.
Sugiyanto urged private universities to improve quality and
credibility in order to lure more students. The government, he
added, should also help by temporarily providing financial
assistance so that universities could improve education services.