Considered The Cause Of The Increase In UKT, Permendikbudristek No. 2/2024 Must Be Revoked

Photo caption: Leaders and members of Commission X DPR together with the BEM SI Alliance after RDP. (DPR.go.id)

JAKARTA The Ministry of Education and Culture has been asked to revoke Permendikbudristek No. 2 of 2024 concerning the Standard for the Higher Education Operational Cost Unit which is considered to be the cause of the increase in Single Lecture Money (UKT) at various state universities in Indonesia.

"The Ministry of Education and Culture must revoke Permendikbudristek No. 2 of 2024 because this is used as a campus basis in determining UKT tariffs," said the National Coordinator of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (Kornas JPPI), Ubaid Matraji, Sunday, May 19, 2024.

In addition, the campus leadership must also protect students' rights to speak and be able to continue their studies, by avoiding persecution or intimidation of students who are in public opinion. No less important, the campus leadership is urged to improve the KIP Lecture data so that it is right on target and rearrange the amount of UKT according to the student's ability to pay.

Ubaid emphasized that higher education is not a tertiary need. Therefore, he regretted the statement by the Secretary of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Tjitjik Sri Tjahjandarie, who said that higher education is a tertiary need.

He considered that this statement was able to hurt people's feelings and shrink the dream of the nation's children to be able to sit in college. Setting higher education as a need for broadcasting is a big mistake. If PT is a tertiary need, then the state will give up about financing, what about the fate of basic and secondary education which is a primary need, has the government paid for Ubaid's tukas.

He urged the government to return higher education as a public good and reject all forms of commercialization in universities, especially in PTNBH. This is because education includes higher education regarding the livelihoods and needs of all citizens that must be met.

Who is responsible for meeting these needs? This mandate is clearly contained in the opening of the 1945 Constitution online 4, which states that, one of the main goals of the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia is to educate the nation's life," he said.

Ubaid encouraged the Indonesian House of Representatives, Kemendikbudristek, together with civil society, to carry out a total evaluation of the Merdeka Campus policy which prompted PTN to become PTN-BH. This is because this policy plays a major role in increasing the high cost of UKT, because the government no longer bears the cost of education, then transfers the burden to students through the UKT scheme.