University seats for natural sciences up 10%

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's 89 state universities will accept 10 percent more students for natural sciences programs this year as a way of preparing the nation for the stiff world competition of the future, an official says.

Director General of Higher Education Bambang Soehendro urged the state universities to effectively make use of their facilities so they can accept more students without compromising their standards.

"If necessary, they can open additional classes on the natural sciences, especially engineering," he said.

Bambang said yesterday that the Ministry of Education and Culture has instructed all state universities to provide the extra seats to accommodate the increase of students, which must first pass the state-held entrance examination in June.

Bagyo Yuwono Moeliodihardjo, the dean of computer studies at the University of Indonesia, said the planned expansion, which would entail great changes and adjustment, would not cause any problems if the universities' capacities allowed for it.

"There are universities which are already overloaded, so of course they cannot accommodate more students," he told The Jakarta Post.

He pointed out, however, that there are problems which must be handled first before a university can take in more students, including poor management practices, which have caused many teachers to work only minimum hours.

"To be frank, there are lecturers whose teaching hours are so minimal that they appear to be unemployed," he said. "If they are managed better, they will work better and can teach more students."

He declined to say whether the University of Indonesia is able to conduct such an expansion, but said that his school has the capacity to do so.

Seats at the state universities are highly coveted because of the prestige usually linked with them, the availability of teachers and the lower tuition fees as compared to private institutions. State colleges are heavily subsidized by the government.

Last year, 63,090 people passed the entrance exams for the state universities, from a total of 412,638 applicants. Of these, a total of 24,809 people were enrolled in natural sciences, 20,261 in social sciences, 5,683 in the natural sciences teaching program and 12,337 in the social sciences teaching program.

A total of 43,943 people applied to Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta last year, but only 2,061 were eventually admitted. The prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology admitted 1,610 students from a total of 36,460 applicants. The University of Indonesia admitted 1,112 students out of 28,207 applicants.

Bambang spoke about the planned expansion at the Education and Training Expo '96 being held at the Jakarta Hilton Convention Center, which was opened by Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro.

The exhibition, which is to last through April 30, is joined by a total of 380 participants from both local and overseas educational institutions, government offices, and foreign representatives in Indonesia.

The exhibition is held annually and is usually arranged to coincide with National Education Day, which falls on May 2. Last year, 300,000 visitors attended the expo, a significant increase from 223,400 in 1994. (31)