The issue of single tuition fees (UKT) has recently become a hot topic. The online loan scheme (known as pinjol) used as a solution for paying the semester tuition fee (UKT) at state universities (PTN) has sparked discussions among students and stakeholders.
Responding to this, the Center for Digital Society (CfDS UGM) at the UGM Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (Fisipol UGM) released a series titled “Is Pinjol Truly the Solution to Expensive UKT for Students?” on Thursday (Apr. 5).
Achmed Faiz Yudha Siregar, a research officer at CfDS UGM, stated that he and his team conducted research using digital data analysis and desk studies related to the online loan controversy that began to surface on Jan. 25, 2024, by the @itbfess anonymous account on the social media platform X, which featured a brochure of online loans partnered with universities as a program to pay UKT in installments.
“Since Jan. 25, 2024, tweets related to UKT and pinjol started to increase towards late Feb. because it was the UKT payment period then. This issue escalated on Feb. 4 because one political figure raised this issue to be discussed publicly,” Siregar explained.
Based on CfDS research conducted by Siregar, Arifatus Sholekhah, Alifian Arrazi, Bangkit Adhi Wiguna, and Falah Muhammad, most tweets showed criticism or negative responses to the policy of UKT payment through pinjol. They observed that both negative and positive responses disapproved of using pinjol to pay UKT.
“Since the transformation of PTN into PTN-BH, there has been a significant increase in UKT. In 1994, 81% of PTN funds came from the state budget. However, after becoming PTN-BH, government funding allocation drastically dropped to 35%,” said Siregar.
According to a report from Kompas in 2024, data published by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) showed that higher education costs in Indonesia consistently increased from 1995 to 2022. This cost increase has led to low participation from people with low incomes in higher education, with the lowest participation rate in the last five years reaching 12.42%.
According to Arifatus Sholekhah, the schemes provided by some State Universities with Legal Entities (PTN-BH) are not suitable, such as the installment scheme offered by UI, which is limited only to undergraduate and vocational students, and the partnership with the Danacita online lending platform with UGM and ITB, which has an interest rate of 1.60-1.75% per month.
UGM has provided the 2024 UGM Scholarship allocated from the Excellent Education Solidarity Contribution (SSPU) in 2023 as a form of concern and commitment to providing ample opportunities for the young generation of Indonesia to obtain the best education at UGM.
The scholarship component includes educational assistance equivalent to UKT or a maximum of Rp4,000,000 per student per semester for two semesters.
The CfDS team also conducted a comparative study on loans provided by federal and private entities in the United States. The presence of these loans has yet to solve the problem of rising education costs there.
Meanwhile, Indonesia still relies on private loans due to the absence of government loan policies and schemes. According to Siregar, there are concerns that private loans may not provide adequate protection for borrowers, they are vulnerable to default, and they have terms that need further consideration.
Author: Dita
Photo: CfDS UGM