Dean Of FEB UI Provides Solutions To UKT Problems

JAKARTA - The Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia (FEB UI) provides a solution to the problem of Single Lecture Money (UKT), where education must be built in mutual cooperation so as to prevent students from leaving college due to cost problems.

Dean of FEB UI Teguh Dartanto in Depok, Saturday said that his party wanted to revive the spirit of mutual cooperation so that they could help each other present a learning place that provides the widest opportunity to all elements of society in Indonesia.

FEB UI is committed that no single student should not be able to continue school for reasons of cost. This is an effort to create, provide opportunities, which are equivalent and as wide as possible to all elements of the nation's children for schools at FEB UI and make FEB UI a home for all.

"In fact, many students here are also recipients of the Smart Indonesia Card program. This is in accordance with our principle, namely inclusion. That quality education is for all groups. Gotong royong may be missed in the big narrative of building UKT. So the spirit of gotong royong in the world of education like this has been forgotten by many people," said Teguh.

According to him, related to UKT, the government has issued a reference through the Minister of Education and Culture Regulation (Permendikbudristek) No. 2 of 2024 concerning the Standard for Higher Education Operational Costs (SBOPT) at PTN within the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Teguh assessed that the latest regulation provides better guidance than the previous regulations. The regulation also regulates the upper limit for determining UKT based on the student unit cost.

"However, what happened was that several universities were competing to increase UKT to the upper limit, so this was what the community was worried about," he said.

The upper limit set by the government regulation is actually below FEB UI standard. In 2023, the maximum UKT in FEB UI is IDR 17.5 million per semester.

On the other hand, referring to the new regulation, the upper limit for UKT S1 in FEB UI was also reduced to IDR 14.65 million. Teguh also said that there were also students who were subject to UKT of IDR 500 thousand or IDR 1 million per semester.

This will depend on income as well as explanations regarding the condition of parents/payers of costs, and refers to the annual notification letter (SPT) of the parents of related students.

Therefore, FEB UI diverts the cost burden by proactively seeking other funding sources to compensate for the reduction in UKT, and subsidizing students who are subject to low education costs. Such as through international special classes and postgraduate classes

FEB UI is also working with relevant stakeholders such as large companies through the corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. There are also parents of students who are able to be strengthened according to their abilities to help students from low-income families.

In addition, FEB UI also often collaborates with alumni to help with the issue of education costs, so that the quality of education is maintained. This is the spirit of FEB UI, where the development of higher education is mutual cooperation.

As for the determination of UKT, his party always involves stakeholders, especially students. Students actively verify data, so that UKT relief deserves to be given to those in need.

Teguh admits that it is not easy. It takes tremendous effort to educate every stakeholder to move together. "But I'm sure we can, that we have to depart from a value on how to build this world of education," said Teguh.

He also hopes that the spirit of mutual cooperation in building higher education can be adopted and become a solution to the same problem in other universities. The reason is, gotong royong is a strategy that must be put forward in facing the current global competition. Every university, he said, must be willing to talk to students or listen to stakeholders.

This is so that a policy is not top-down without good public consultation. Then universities need to consistently provide related education to stakeholders who are even long-term.

"Cooperation with stakeholders to help and our brothers and sisters who have economic limitations so that they can still go to school, I think the nature of the Indonesian people is always trying to help. This can solve problems, but it does require extraordinary effort," said Teguh optimistically.