Widespread Cheating Mars University Entrance Exams
Following the conclusion of this year’s computer-based entrance exam (UTBK) for state university admissions, organizers have vowed to take firm action against mass cheating and fraud, including referring serious cases to law enforcement. This year’s UTBK was marred by reports of widespread organized and systemic cheating. Investigations have uncovered a range of tactics, including the use of so-called academic joki, paid test-takers hired to impersonate actual students. In a recent press conference Eduart Wolok, head of the National Selection for New Student Admissions (SNPMB) Oversight Committee said that hundreds of cheating incidents had been uncovered during the exam period this year, which ran from April 23 to May 3. “We’ve already imposed sanctions on those caught cheating and, in more serious cases, we have handed them over to the police,” Eduart said. He emphasized that the committee’s oversight efforts would continue beyond the testing phase and into the university re-registration period. The SNPMB has ramped up its preventive measures against fraud in this year’s tests, which included the use of metal detectors at test centers and stricter controls on test design, scoring procedures and answer evaluation. e“Thanks to the hard work of the committee and ongoing coordination with UTBK centers, we’ve been able to detect and address cheating attempts, protecting the integrity of the exam and the rights of honest participants,” Eduart added.
Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Brian Yuliarto, who also spoke at the press conference, expressed strong support for the crackdown, saying that while violations were limited in number, they still posed a threat to academic fairness. “The number may be small, but academic dishonesty, no matter the scale, undermines students who have put in a genuine effort,” Brian said.
Activists Reject Hero Status for Marsinah
Women’s rights activists have firmly rejected President Prabowo Subianto’s plan to name slain labor activist Marsinah a national hero unless her murder during former president Soeharto’s authoritarian New Order regime is first recognized and investigated as a human rights violation. Dian Septi Trisnanti, a women’s activist and founder of marsinah.id, a community media platform named after the activist, questio
ned Prabowo’s motive. She further described the gesture as “symbolic violence” that belittles Marsinah’s contributions to labor rights and allows the state to sidestep responsibility. “Declaring someone a hero means recognizing their service, but if Marsinah’s struggle is not acknowledged [and] if her murder is not treated as a gross human rights violation, the state only continues to reduce her to a victim,” Dian told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. Marsinah was a vocal critic of labor practices during the New Order, protesting low wages and poor working conditions at a factory in Sidoarjo, East Java. After a confrontation involving the military, the 24-year-old unionist disappeared and was found murdered on May 8, 1993, in a forest hut in Nganjuk, showing signs of rape and torture.