UKT Religious Universities Should Not Strengthen Students

Indonesian Minister of Religion (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas (ANTARA/HO-Kemenag RI)

The Minister of Religion (Menag) of the Republic of Indonesia Yaqut Cholil Qoumas emphasized that the cost of Single Lecture Money (UKT) applied by Religious Universities under the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) should not in principle burden students.

He expressed this when attending the awarding of the 2024 UIN Alumni Association (IkalUIN) Award at the State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta. "The principle is that UKT should not burden students. So later the Chancellor will continue to coordinate with us regarding UKT. Once again, in principle UKT should not burden students," said Minister of Religion Yaqut in a statement in Jakarta, quoted from ANTARA, Monday, May 27.Gus Men, as he is familiarly called, emphasized that the Ministry of Religion would first postpone the transformation process of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta into a Legal Entity College (PTN-BH), so that all instruments meeting the needs of PTN-BH were prepared. "I postponed the PTN-BH process for UIN Jakarta until all instruments meeting PTN-BH needs were prepared," he said. Minister of Religion also advised UIN Chancellor Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta Asep Saepudin Jahar not to rely too much on UKT for logistics financing and education operations at campus. He said the source of funding could result from managing hospitals, hotels, and dormitories. "The hospital can be a backbone for fulfilling campus needs. The student and hotels can also be an alternative source of income for Jakarta UIN in carrying out their operational processes. Later please prepare so that what we are concerned can be realized," he said.

Related to this, UIN Chancellor Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta Asep Saepudin Jahar said, UIN Jakarta is developing independence in funding through the development of business centers as an effort not to rely too much on UKT in the campus operational process. "We lead to independent capabilities in funding. So, we develop business centers such as hospitals, hotels, and so on. we will develop it not to rely on UKT," said Asep.