University exam results announced

University exam results announced

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The result of the 2005 university entrance examination announced
late on Friday suggests that certain study programs in state
universities may have failed to attract enough interest from new
students.

The national selection committee announced late on Friday in
its website www.spmb.or.id the results of the entrance test,
which was conducted last month.

Secretary of the selection committee Soesmalijah Soewondo was
quoted by newsportal Tempo Interaktif as saying that only 84,443
senior highs chool students passed the university entrance
examinations.

This represents less than 28 percent of the nearly 305,000
students who joined the entrance test competing for some 90,270
places in more than 1,720 study programs at 51 state universities
nationwide.

The lower number of students passing the examination compared
to the number of places, suggests that some study programs failed
to attract enough new students, Soesmalijah said.

Due to limited space, state universities will admit only high
school student who have passed not only the university admission
tests but also the recent national examination.

Out of 1.9 million senior high and vocational school students
who took the national exam, 30 percent, or more than 400,000 of
them failed and may take the exam again on Aug. 25.

State universities will start classes in September.

Although places have been increased by 10 percent from last
year's figure, the number of students taking the university
entrance test this year decreased by 10 percent from last year's
370,000.

Under the autonomy principle, some state universities held
admission tests earlier, and accepted new students who could
afford to pay the entrance and tuition fees.