Scholarship Money At 2 Private Campuses In NTB Cut, Value Of IDR 5.7 Billion

The Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia Representative of West Nusa Tenggara revealed allegations of a scholarship cut of Rp5.7 billion by two private universities in the region.

The head of the NTB Ombudsman's Maladministration Prevention Assistant, Arya Wiguna, said that since March 2023, his party has again saved a scholarship cut for the Indonesia Smart Card (KIP) student college worth more than IDR 5.7 billion from two universities in NTB.

"The scholarship cuts for KIP Student Lecture scholarships were found from a university in Central Lombok of more than Rp3,877 billion and Rp1,878 billion from one of the universities in Mataram, bringing the total to more than Rp5.7 billion," he said in Mataram, Monday, May 29.

For universities in Central Lombok, this cut was carried out on 411 students. Meanwhile, 255 colleges in Mataram are students.

"For Central Lombok from the 2019-2022 generation and for those in Mataram from the 2017-2022 class," said Arya.

Arya said there were five that had been findings, an accumulation of Rp9.1 billion, including KIP scholarships for the Lombok earthquake.

"This is a new report from two campuses in Central Lombok, one campus, Mataram, one campus," he said.

He revealed that the mode used by the two campuses in cutting the lecture KIP scholarship was by issuing a policy stated by KIP students who had not paid a number of tuition fees.

"The scholarship cut for KIP students, previously known as the Bidikmisi scholarship, is clearly an act of maladministration. Under any pretext, universities are prohibited from cutting tuition KIP scholarships," he said.

Based on the search by the Indonesian Ombudsman NTB, the campus set a number of tuition expenses charged to KIP scholarship recipients. The tuition fee burden was deducted from the KIP college scholarship fund.

"With the campus policy, students are forced to pay tuition fees by cutting student college scholarships," said Arya.

According to him, the implementation of the KIP Lecture scholarship program is regulated in the Secretary-General Regulation of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Number 10 of 2022 concerning Guidelines for the Implementation of the Indonesia Smart Program for Higher Education.

One of the provisions of the Secretary-General Regulation stipulates that universities are prohibited from collecting any additional costs related to the education operations of recipients of the KIP Lecture program which are directly related to the learning process.

The Regulation of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Number 10 of 2022 has regulated several components of tuition fees that can be charged to students. However, payments are prohibited from being made by cutting student college KIP scholarships.

"Currently, the Indonesian Ombudsman NTB is monitoring the process of returning funds to all recipient students at each university. In addition, the Indonesian Ombudsman NTB wants to ensure that the college organizers of the KIP Lecture Scholarship Program comply with applicable regulations," he said.

Asked whether the findings of the Ombudsman were reported to law enforcement officials, both the police and the prosecutor's office. Arya stated that he was not reported on the grounds that the Ombudsman did this as a form of supervision.

"We did not report this finding to APH. Because the context of our supervision focuses on public services in education by preventing and giving them the opportunity to return it," he said.