Jakarta. Mohammad Nasih, the chancellor of Airlangga University, recently blamed the soaring tuition fees on the lack of investment in the higher education sector.

According to Nasih, Indonesia’s investment in higher education is far less than those of neighboring countries. However, Nasih did not go into detail on how much other countries invest in making sure that their people go to universities.

“Indonesia’s investment in the higher education sector is still low, only about Rp 9.4 million [about $584] per student. We are falling behind our neighboring countries,” Nasih said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Nasih said he hoped the investment could reach up to Rp 34 million per student by 2034. The rector also underlined the government should give the education sector a bigger budget allocation, reaching between 25-30 percent. 

“There should be cooperation in boosting the education budget. I find the current education budget allocation extremely small. The government says that the state budget allocation [for the education sector] should be at least 20 percent, but the realization rate is still below 20 percent.” Nasih said.

“If we can do so, I think this will help improve the quality of the education sector, including the labs and lecturers,” Nasih said.

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