Waiting For The Realization Of Prabowo Subianto's Cheap Education Promise

Photo Illustration By Andry Winarko VOI

JAKARTA The polemic of increasing Single Lecture Money or UKT in a number of State Universities (PTN) in 2024 has finally ended. Minister of Education and Technology Nadiem Makarim stated that he canceled the increase in UKT 2024 in all PTN.

This was conveyed by Nadiem after being summoned to meet the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo (Jokowi) at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta on Monday (27/5/2024).

"Thank you for the constructive input from various parties. I have heard the aspirations of students, families, and the community. The Ministry of Education and Culture last weekend coordinated with university leaders to discuss canceling the increase in UKT and thank God everything went smoothly. I just met with the President and he agreed to cancel the UKT increase. In the near future the Ministry of Education and Culture will re-evaluate UKT recommendations from all PTN," said Nadiem in a written statement from the Ministry of Education and Culture after a meeting with President Joko Widodo, Monday 27 May 2024.

However, the cancellation of the UKT increase will only apply in the 2024/2025 school year. This is because the increase in UKT can still occur in the upcoming 2025/2026 school year. This was revealed by Jokowi that there is a possibility that the UKT PTN will increase next year.

According to the president, the cancellation of the UKT increase this year is expected to provide time to evaluate the UKT amount for each PTN as well as the gap in the increase in UKT for new students.

"This possibility will be evaluated first, then the increase in each university will be studied and calculated. So it is possible, this is still a possibility, later this policy in the Minister of Education and Culture will begin to increase next year," explained Jokowi.

Nadiem himself admitted that in his meeting with Jokowi apart from discussing UKT, he also discussed various matters in the field of education. This includes describing several solutions to approaches to dealing with student difficulties.

"I propose several approaches to be able to overcome the difficulties faced by students. Regarding the implementation of Permendikbudristek, the Director General of Education and Technology will announce the technical details," he said.

As is known, the UKT applied in various PTNs is based on Permendikbudristek Number 2 of 2024 concerning the Standard for the Higher Education Operational Cost Unit (SSBOPT) which was signed by the Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem on January 19, 2024.

This Permendikbud was published as the basis for increasing the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) for PTN and PTN-BH. The SSBOPT adjustment also considers the fact of the increasing technological need for learning, given changes in the world of work which are also increasingly advanced in technology, while SSBOPT has never been updated since 2019.

Nadiem explained that actually Permendikbudristek Number 2 of 2024 also emphasized two main things that were taken into consideration in determining UKT, namely the principle of justice and the principle of inclusiveness. The polemic about UKT, he said, was due to a number of misconceptions.

Actually, the Permendikbudristek only applies to new students. There is a possibility that PTN is wrong when the placement of students in the UKT group is not in accordance with its economic capacity because the data provided by students is inaccurate.

Then, there are also a handful of PTNs that previously had low UKT or had not been adjusted for more than five years, so the UKT increase was considered unreasonable. There is also a misunderstanding that the highest UKT group applies to most students. Whereas overall, only 3.7 percent of new students are placed in the highest UKT group.

Permendikbud No. 2/2024 Must Be Revised Or Revoked

Cancellation of the 2024 UKT increase is considered only a temporary solution. The National Coordinator of the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI), Ubaid Matraji, urged Permendikbud No. 2/2024 which is said to be the cause of the increasing UKT in several PTNs must be revoked.

"The Ministry of Education and Culture must revoke Permendikbudristek No. 2/2024 because this is used as the basis for the campus in determining the UKT tariff," he said.

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.

Therefore, there must be a total evaluation of the Merdeka Campus policy which encourages PTN to become PTN-BH. The reason is, this policy plays a major role in increasing the high cost of UKT, when the government no longer bears the cost of education, then it is transferred to students through the UKT scheme.

Deputy Chairman of Commission X DPR RI, Dede Yusuf also asked Permendikbud No. 2/2024 to be immediately revoked or revised, especially regarding restrictions on UKT and SPI costs, before the admission of new students begins. We convey to revoke or revise especially the cost of the increase above, because if the lower one is not a problem. We urge issues circulating in the community and ask that in the next week before the admission of new students, all of them have been evaluated," he said.

Unfortunately, Nadiem revealed that the Permendikbud could not be revised immediately without his party finding directly PTN which regulates the high cost of UKT. Therefore, Nadiem promised to go to the field to examine and evaluate PTN's policy to follow the Ministry of Education and Culture's decision regarding UKT costs.

This was done before Nadiem later revised the Permendikbud. "We strongly agree and therefore we will go to the field, we will re-evaluate the (UKT) upgrades, first an unreasonable increase," he added.

He said it needed to be done to determine the location of the shortcomings of the implementation of Permendikbud No. 2/2024. After examining the conditions in the field, Nadiem confirmed that he would revise Permendikbud if it was found that a number of PTNs that had UKT fees were not reasonable.

Prabowo's Commitment To Realize Cheap Education

Despite the high UKT polemic in 2024, the Indonesian people are certainly waiting for the promise of the elected president, Prabowo Subianto, who in his campaign has committed to providing cheap and even free education to the PTN level.

Prabowo made this commitment in the 3rd Anniversary of the Presidential Decree on Ideas at the Mata Najwa on Stage event in Yogyakarta, in collaboration with Gadjah Mada University (UGM), last Thursday, September 19, 2023.

"My commitment is that I will fight as hard as I can for all state universities and public schools, not to be paid for by their students," Prabowo said at the time.

He gave an example of the Defense University (IDU) as a public campus that has made free education costs. The campus, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense, even provides dormitory facilities.

In addition, in the 2024 Presidential Candidate Debate at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Senayan, last Sunday, February 4, 2024, Prabowo also mentioned the scholarship for abroad lectures for 10,000 students in the medical field.

Then, another program that Prabowo will announce is the assistance of 10,000 scholarships for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Not only that, Prabowo also promised a S1-S3 scholarship for farmers' children, fishermen, teachers, and laborers.

Friday, May 24, 2024, Prabowo in his written statement reaffirmed his commitment to ease PTN's UKT in his leadership in the next five years. In fact, PTN's UKT must be minimal or free.

"Moreover, public universities built by public money (APBN money) must not be high, if it can be very minimal or free. We have to calculate and work hard for that," he said.

He considered that the education system in Indonesia had changed drastically after the New Order. He sees the world of education in Indonesia today as an industry that adheres to the value of capitalism. "So he thinks that all of this can become a market, even though this is a public goods, a social obligation for a country," he added.

Prabowo is determined that in his future leadership, he will try to improve Indonesia's education. One of the efforts is to intensify downstreaming in order to increase the country's income. "Of course we have to downstream for us to get added value and improve our education," he said.

Ubaid Matraji hopes that Prabowo's statement is not just "omons". Because, until now there has been no breakthrough in the field of education that is just. Don't just omons. It must be realized, because it is a constitutional order," he said.

However, he still hopes that there will be concrete solutions in the Prabowo government to stop the liberalization agenda in higher education. One example is by removing the status of the State University of the Legal Entity (PTNBH) which is considered to be the cause of high tuition fees, including UKT in the country.