60% of Uni freshers must be state exam takers

JAKARTA: State universities are allowed to recruit new students through in-house tests, but at least 60 percent of their freshers should be students who took the state exam, the national education minister says.

National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said the current amount of seats offered through in-house tests at state universities was tolerable, but praised Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and Gadjah Mada University for announcing that they would eliminate in-house exams this year.

“This should be an inspiration for other state universities,” he said on Wednesday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Since being categorized as self-funded institutions, state universities have found ways to generate their own income, including by setting aside a number of seats for participants outside the regular national admission tests.

After the Constitutional Court overturned the article on the national education system law that mandated the self-funding system, the ministry issued a regulation implementing a minimum cap on admissions from the national university entrance exam.

Several universities, including University of Indonesia, the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) and Brawijaya University said they would maintain in-house tests, and an admissions ratio in line with the ministry regulation. — JP