Tuition Fee for $20 Per Semester
Rants July 9th. 2008, 6:15pm
(Picture is from stock.xchng.)
I have been asked several times about tuition fee at Indonesian universities. It’s not an easy answer. When I pursued my bachelor degree at the University of Gadjah Mada (UGM), I paid ~$20 / semester for my tuition fee. Yes, it was 20 bucks (not 20 thousands).
Well, it’s true that I studied at the university about 15 years ago. However, I believe the current tuition fee is still below $250 / semester (anyone from UGM to confirm?)
Why is it so cheap? Firstly, UGM is a public university. Private universities usually charge much higher tuition fees. Secondly, Yogyakarta, the city where UGM is located, is an inexpensive city to live.
Just to give you an overview, here is a list of my spending when I was living in Yogyakarta (again, it was 15 years ago):
- Room rental: $10 / month
- Food: $20 / month
- Transportation: $5 / month
- Entertainment: $5 / month
- Miscellaneous: $10 / month
Of course, the costs are 3-4 times more expensive now; but still they are quite cheap. Just for comparison, I can easily spend $20 for a dinner in Vancouver.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Yes, UGM is still state-owned university. But government contribution on handling UGM (and other state-owned universities) operational costs now is not 100% anymore. Some people said that it is 30% or less. So state-owned universities need to cover the operational cost by themselves. They charge more tuition fee, they run ‘university company’ to get more income (if you ever knew JawaraFM, now it becomes SwaraGamaFM, UGM owned radio, run professionally and commercially).
About tuition fee, some students need to pay $7,500 or more, just to study on Medical Faculty in UGM, for example.