Yogya's UGM to offer scholarships to employees' children

Sri Wahyuni, Yogyakarta

The expensive Gadjah Mada University (UGM), criticized before for being a university of the rich, is to offer scholarships worth Rp 3.3 billion (US$366,666) to children of its lecturers and other staff.

UGM vice rector for administrative affairs Marwan Asri said on Tuesday that starting this academic year, some 750 new and current students from the families of university employees would receive either full or partial scholarships.

"The decision was made as a way of expressing gratitude to all the employees and lecturers for their dedication to the university. Hopefully, it will be of a great (financial) help for them and an incentive to increase their performance at work," he said.

Marwan, accompanied by deputy rector for student and alumni affairs Zaenal Bahruddin and other UGM executives, said the decision would not reduce the chances of other students getting similar scholarships from the university.

The money paying for the scholarships would be taken from funds raised by the university's business sector and grants from community members, he said.

The total funds needed for the scheme would amount to about Rp 3.3 billion, Rp 1.5 billion of which would be allotted for new students.

"But this is not an automatic scholarship to all students from UGM families," said Marwan. He stressed selections would be based on both the employees' performance and their children's academic achievement.

This year, UGM is charging an admission fee of Rp 5 million to Rp 20 million per student and an tuition fee of Rp 500,000 per semester.

UGM has also invited students from poor families to apply for either full or partial scholarships to study in the Yogyakarta- based university.

This year, the university plans to provide scholarships for some 5,000 of its 30,000 undergraduate students.

In a bid to provide its students with faster academic services, UGM will introduce an on-line registration system for newly accepted students in the 2004-2005 academic year.

Under the new system, new students would only have to spend between 15 and 20 minutes at the longest to register themselves at the university.

"Previously, a student took about two days to accomplish the registration process," director of academic affairs Budi Prasetyo said on Tuesday.

He said some 40 computer-terminals would be provided on campus during the registration period for students to enter their data.

Once the data was verified, students would be officially registered and given a "GamaCard", an electronic student services card.

Staff would also be present to assist less computer-literate students, Budi said.

"In the next academic year, in cooperation with Bank Mandiri, we plan to make the registration process accessible across the country. Prospective students will not need to come to the campus and fill in biodata forms, they'll be able to register through the Internet instead. They'll have to come here only for their final verification," he said.