The Bandung Institute of Technology's (ITB) legal status as a public institution has allowed it to offer more scholarships to financially needy students, the university rector said Friday.

Rector Djoko Santoso said ITB's status as a state-owned legal entity (BHMN), granted in 2000, made it possible for the university to get businesses to adequately cover its operational costs.

"We can make deals and manage them ourselves -- things we couldn't do before we had this status," Djoko told The Jakarta Post.

ITB was one of a handful of top universities in the country to receive BHMN status in 2000. Others include Gadjah Mada University and the University of Indonesia.

Djoko refuted criticism the BHMN status enabled the universities to arbitrarily demand funds from students, saying it meant only a third of the university's operational costs could be funded from money paid by students.

"It requires us to be creative in seeking out more funding, in addition to the support we get from the public budget," Djoko said.

"We can't just do as we please when seeking funds. We can't exceed the one-third limit. Violating that regulation carries legal consequences."

The rector added that since the granting of the status, students from economically disadvantaged families were exempted from paying admissions fees if they passed ITB's admissions test.

He said ITB would scrap admissions fees for 173 students from such families in the 2009 academic year, 160 of whom would also be exempted from paying tuition.

"Conversely, rich students are not guaranteed a place here if they don't pass the entrance exam. I'm sorry, we can't just accept someone, no matter you they are, if they're not qualified," he said.

He added quality was still a priority for ITB, saying there were many instances when prospective students had offered billions of rupiah in admissions fees, but had been rejected because they did not pass the test.

"The biggest admissions fee we have accepted so far from those who have passed the admissions test is Rp 200 million," he said.

Djoko added ITB had also helped 6,000 of its 13,000 undergraduate students get scholarships from the private sector, thanks to its legal entity status.

That figure, he said, was five times higher since ITB was granted BHMN status.

He said the central government had so far funded 30 percent of ITB's total operational costs of Rp 500 billion, and had recently pledged to raise it to 37 percent of the university's expected expenses in 2009 of more than Rp 600 billion.

"We would certainly not be able to cover all our operational expenses if our finances were still managed wholly by the government," he said.

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia