Indonesian Higher Education 115
some minority groups remain a critical concern in Indonesia. Moreover,
though Indonesia has a large number of private universities, competition
for places in public universities remains very keen. While there are only
75,000 places available, the number of students taking the national public
university entrance examination totalled about 450,000 each year (Nizam
2006). This means only one in every six applicants can obtain a public
university place.
Thus the centralized public university admission examination system
in Indonesia is highly competitive. Nizam (2006) argues that students
typically need access to a high-quality upper secondary schooling and extra
special training in a “private study centre” (known as bimbingan belajar)
in order to gain admission into a public university. However, most high-
quality secondary schools and bimbingan belajar are located in urban areas
and only students from middle- and high-income families can afford the
extra training. According to Nizam (2006), only 3.3 per cent of students
from the lowest 20 per cent of income groups successfully passed the test.
In contrast, the proportion of students from the highest income quintile
who gain entry to public university places is 30.9 per cent.
Buchori and Malik (2004) note that most students who did not pass the
public university admission test and afterwards choose to study at a private
university are from the low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. The
pattern of high SES students enrolling in high-quality public universities
and low SES students enrolling in relatively low-quality private universities
will likely continue to perpetuate social inequality.
3. MODEL AND EMPIRICAL STRATEGY
I will follow Rouse (1994), Epple and Romano (1998), Bedi and Garg (2000),
Jacob (2002) and Edwards and Pasquale (2003) for multiple school choice
sorting to model higher education participation choice using a random
utility model. The model highlights several possible factors underlying
the school choice gap and higher education participation. In my model,
individual i graduates from lower secondary school type j jointly chooses
with their parents to attend an upper secondary programme from among
four available school choices: public, private non-religious, private Islamic,
and private Christian.
I assume individuals and their parents have already decided to attend
an upper secondary school as they are now searching for a possible school