Postgraduate Students Demand Cost Mitigation Due To Pandemic

Illustration (Source: ugm.ac.id)

JAKARTA - The alliance of postgraduate students who are members of the Indonesian Postgraduate Movement demands that tuition fees be reduced without barriers. Given the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic without knowing hair. This is evident from the research they conducted.

This alliance of graduate students from the University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, Brawijaya University, Andalas University and Udayana University demands all campuses in Indonesia as well as the Indonesian Government, to reduce tuition fees. "Reduce tuition fees by at least 50% for the odd semester 2020/2021 for all postgraduate students without any conditions," according to an alliance statement received by VOI.

In addition, the Indonesian Postgraduate Movement also demands that even semester tuition fees be refunded optimally. They also demand that the tuition fees that have been paid by students in the odd semester of 2020/2021 are returned.

Other demands are the elimination of tuition fees for final year students; Transparency in the use of tuition fees that must be paid by postgraduate students and transparency of campus finances in detail; Encourage the government (central and local) to allocate funds from the APBN and APBD to subsidize tuition fees for all levels of students at all tertiary institutions in Indonesia and encourage the Indonesian Government to make binding regulations for all campuses in Indonesia to reduce tuition fees for all students .

Affected by a pandemic

The reason the Indonesian Postgraduate Movement issued its demands was none other than the economic impact of the pandemic which made their economic capacity decline. This is evident from the survey they conducted. The study showed that 88.4% of the family economy of postgraduate students was affected by the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, 96.8% of postgraduate student respondents felt that paying full tuition fees would be burdensome for their families' finances. This survey was conducted by capturing 3,204 respondents with a distribution of 519 postgraduate students at the University of Indonesia (UI), 2,069 postgraduate students from Gadjah Mada University (UGM), and 616 postgraduate students at Andalas University (Unand).

Indonesian Postgraduate Movement Survey Results

Indonesian Postgraduate Movement Survey Results

The economic problem is getting heavier due to the additional expenditure that students have to spend while implementing distance learning (JPP). They inevitably have to use private facilities for online learning.

No help

Sadly, postgraduate students who experience a decline in economic capacity and are disadvantaged by the PJJ method do not get any attention at all, either from the government or from their respective campuses. Permendikbud No. 25 of 2020 does not provide relief for postgraduate level students.

This is further proven by the statement Plt. Director General of Higher Education Kemendikbud, Nizam to CNN Indonesia. According to him, S2 and S3 students are not included in the calculation of the reduction in tuition fees because most of them have scholarships.

In fact, according to research by the Indonesian Postgraduate Movement on 3 campuses, the argument that many postgraduate students receive scholarships is actually not proven. A survey conducted by the Indonesian Postgraduate Movement shows that 90.7% of postgraduate students pay tuition independently, in other words do not receive scholarships.

From the research, only 9.3 percent of students received scholarships. Even more ironically, based on a survey conducted on 347 scholarship recipients from UI and UGM (44 UI and 303 UGM), 34.3% of respondents admitted that the scholarships they received experienced problems during the pandemic.