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In response to criticisms of the varied systems employed across the country for college admissions, the Ministry of National Education is this year planning to review arrangements for entrance exams, requesting universities keep the admissions process transparent and “friendly.”

Deputy Minister Fasli Jalal said over the weekend that the ministry would review the admissions policies of 84 state universities, including 27 technical schools. The review is expected to be completed in 2011.

“People are getting confused with the whole process. How many places do the universities have, how many places are allocated for certain entrance tests? These are among the questions asked by the public,” he said. “So far, many universities are not transparent with those matters.”

Fasli said the ministry was inundated every year with queries from concerned parents and students about the vast number of entrance tests and admissions procedures used by various colleges.

While the ministry could not legally intervene to regulate the process, the deputy minister said it was still important to review the procedures to ensure transparency for the public.

“The University of Indonesia has 11 avenues of admission for new students, Brawijaya University Malang has seven and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture has three, but then the three procedures then each have branches,” Fasli said. “So you see, it’s difficult for people to understand how this works.”

“We need universities to be transparent and friendly, both in terms of admissions and access.”

Fasli said state universities had for years tried to work out a standardized system for national selection, previously allocating more than half of their places to students who used this admissions process. However, in recent years, many universities have slashed their national selection quotas in favor of their own private entrance procedures.

Ade Irawan, a public service monitoring coordinator with Indonesia Corruption Watch, on Monday hailed the government’s plan, saying that some universities clearly used the admissions process to leverage more money from potential students.

“The problem is actually not about how many entrance procedures they have for new students, but how much money they charge the students once they are accepted,” he said.

“It’s common knowledge that special entrance procedures are set up independently by the universities to generate more money. Thus, they’re very discriminatory because only the rich can then get into the programs.”

Student groups in the past have rallied against the independent selection process, accusing some universities of using them to drive up student fees and costs.

Devie Rahmawati, a spokeswoman from the University of Indonesia, however, rejected allegations of discrimination, saying UI had always been transparent with its admissions. She said all the information needed for new students about the selection process was freely available on the university’s Web site.

“We only have six entrance procedures — and please note that each student is not charged differently, whether they are accepted from the national selection process or other UI procedures,” Devie said.

She added that the university would be glad to discuss its admissions procedures with the Education Ministry.

Ade said the ministry had to accept some of the blame for the current situation, with its push for commercialization of the education sector driving universities to charge students more and look for new revenue sources.