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.