Nadiem Called By Jokowi To The Palace In The Middle Of The Expensive UKT Polemic

Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Mendikbudristek) Nadiem Anwar Makarim arrived at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Monday (27/5/2024) to meet President Joko Widodo. (ANTARA/Yashinta Difa)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) summoned the Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Mendikbudristek) Nadiem Anwar Makarim to the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Monday 27 May. " “ Discuss several educational issues, want to report Mr. President,” Nadiem said when asked by reporters regarding his needs to go to the Palace, was confiscated by Antara. Nadiem also agreed when asked further whether his discussion with the President would also mention the issue of the increase in the amount of single tuition fees (UKT), which is in the public spotlight. "Yes, there are several issues," he said. Recently, it has been widely reported that a number of campuses have provided a large UKT fee jump, such as an increase from UKT class four to class five and so on with an average of five to 10 percent. This has become a polemic until there has been a wave of demonstrations by state university students in a number of areas. Commission X of the Indonesian House of Representatives then followed up on the problem by forming a Education Financing Working Committee (Panja) to find out the cause of the recent single tuition fee increase. In a joint working meeting with Commission X of the Indonesian House of Representatives in Jakarta, last week, Nadiem stated that the increase in UKT as a result of the Minister of Education and Culture Regulation Number 2 of 2024 only applies to new students and not to students who are already studying at college. According to him, there are many misperceptions in the community regarding this rule, namely the increase in UKT also applies to students studying at universities, even though it is only for new students in the coming new school year. Even Nadiem said the increase in UKT would not be applied to new students with inadequate economic capabilities. Later, he said, students with low economic capacity will be included in the first and second class UKT, the amount of which has been determined by the government, namely group one of Rp. 500 thousand and group two of Rp. 1 million. The government also requires that UKT recipients in groups one and group two in each State University (PTN) must be as much as 20 percent per year.

Meanwhile, students who have good to high economic capacity will be subject to UKT starting from the third group onwards, according to the student's ability with the amount of costs set by universities. Nadiem also promised to stop the irrational increase in UKT in universities. "I am committed along with the Ministry of Education and Culture to ensure, because of course there is a recommendation from us, to ensure that we will stop these irrational leaps," he said in a working meeting with Commission X of the Indonesian House of Representatives in Jakarta, Tuesday, May 21.