YOGYAKARTA – Living with limited resources is not a barrier for somebody to make achievements. This has been proven by as many as 2,000 students of Universitas Gadjah Mada coming from disadvantaged families who have prideful achievements. Rector of UGM, Prof. Dr. Pratikno, M.Soc., Sc., said that of 2,050 students receiving Bidikmisi scholarships in 2010 and 2011, as many as 63,7% have GPA over 3,00. Even those that have GPA higher than 3.5 are 27.69 %. “We’re proud that the Bidikmisi recipients could show outstanding achievements,” said the Rector in a dialogue between Education and Culture Minister, Prof Dr Muhammad Nuh, with Bidikmisi recipients on Wednesday (3/10) in UC UGM.
The Rector said, the Bidikmisi gives access to underprivileged students to continue education at a higher level. In his opinion, the program of the Education and Culture Ministry should be appreciated. “UGM continues to support the policy as it gives access to underprivileged students. In the future we need to think about those in the category of the outlaying, most remote and left behind,” he said.
The number of recipients of Bidikmisi from UGM was 3000 in the past three years. In 2010, UGM admits as many as 500 students, increasing to 1,550 in 2011. “For this year, we admit 1,102 students,” he said.
Minister Prof Dr Muhammad Nuh advised students to make good use of the scholarship to be able to finish study. “We don’t want students not to make use of this (scholarship),” he said.
The Minister said students studying at university are fortunate people as there are only 27% of youths at age ranging from 17-23 that can go to university. “This mean that 73% of the young people cannot become students. And of the 27%, not all can go to state universities, and not all can go to UGM,” he added.
He mentioned that this year around 140 thousand of students have enrolled at UGM, but only some 7,000 are admitted. “If they are not brilliant and fortunate, it is not possible for them,” he said.
One of the recipient students, Philip Anggo Krisbiantoro, 18, said that he is very much helped by the Bidikmisi. The son of a home builder and house maid said that most of the money he receives totalling Rp600,000 per month was to finance his brother’s schooling at a highschool. The rest is used for his tuition and rent,” said the student of Mathematics and Natural Sciences department who is in his third semester. The student from Gunungkidul has to walk to campus from the house where he rents a room.