W

est Java'€™s Bekasi city administration is set to acquire a private university, Islam '€˜45 University (Unisma), and change its name to Bekasi State University.

Bekasi Development Planning Board (Bappeda) head of social and cultural affairs Eka Hidayat said that the city administration chose Unisma, established in 1982, because it is one of the oldest universities in Bekasi. Further, she said, Unisma has made a large contribution to education in Bekasi.

'€œBuilding our own university is an urgent matter in order to increase the education index in our city. Our education index is currently 89.8 percent, lower than our 90.34 percent target,'€ Eka said as quoted by wartakotalive.com. The Education index is calculated using mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling

Before the acquisition, Eka said that Unisma would need to fulfill a number of requirements for it to become a state university. The requirements include that the university must be at least 30-hectares wide, offer at least 10 study programs and have at least six lecturers with masters degrees in at least ten of the offered study programs.

Although other requirements had been fulfilled by Unisma, currently, its campus is only 18 hectares wide. Thus, she said, the city administration would help Unisma expand.