In March 2018, President Joko Widodo in his speech challenged banks to implement education credit for universities or better known as Student Loans . President Jokowi said this was not without basis. This reflects the recent condition of society, namely the low absorption capacity of high school graduates and equivalents who continue their studies to tertiary institutions. Of course, this is very worrying considering that competition is no longer just within Indonesia but at international level, such as the MEA. On the other hand, credit absorption capacity in Indonesia is still relatively low. President Jokowi also said that in several developed and developing countries, the student loan system has been successfully implemented even though there are still obstacles faced. For these various reasons, President Jokowi wants a credit system that can reduce these various problems. In fact, the president's challenge was welcomed by national banks. Within a few weeks, Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) launched education credit for undergraduate to doctoral students and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) launched credit for master's and doctoral students with several conditions.
In 1980, Indonesia actually implemented education credit, better known as KMI (Indonesian Student Credit). However, this program failed because the requirement to get a diploma for creditors was that they had to be able to pay off their education credits, but in fact, to get a job, students only needed a photocopy of their diploma that had been legalized so they didn't need an original diploma. This causes creditors/students not to pay off their educational credit installments. Based on this experience, according to financial planners, there is a need for assessment after graduation, and education credit should be prioritized for students who want to continue their Masters and Doctoral degrees who already have jobs, while for undergraduate students there needs to be more filters, namely in the form of collateral from parents, as well as applying 5C banking ( Capital, character, capacity, condition, and collateral ) to reduce the risk of bad credit.
In terms of Sharia banking, in our opinion student loans cannot be implemented, firstly, of course the application of interest is very contrary to sharia principles. Second , because Islamic banks are also business entities which of course need a scheme that can generate profits, and the Qordul Hasan is not one that can generate profits. Meanwhile, Sharia banks can only make contracts for indirect loans that have clear ujrah Therefore, Sharia banks may still not be able to contribute to the challenges presented by our president.
Reflecting on the various causes and impacts of student loans , this discussion offers another alternative to student loans, namely educational productive waqf. The scheme of productive educational waqf itself, namely waqf, is managed by the Indonesian Waqf Board (BWI) and distributed to anyone who needs it in two ways, namely through scholarships or loans through qordul hasan (benevolent loans, namely loans that if the borrower is unable to pay then it doesn't matter. -what or let it go). Productive educational endowments can also be implemented by universities. A percentage of the Single Tuition Fee (UKT) is set aside by the campus to be donated to productive waqf, higher education waqf is managed by the campus so that its use is transparent and controlled, waqf funds can be used to carry out various halal businesses so as to generate profits where the principal amount of the waqf cannot be reduced The value and profits from waqf management are used for scholarships or education loans for university students related to the same scheme as before.
This solution is considered more capable of overcoming the educational problems presented by President Joko Widodo, and this program has been implemented and successful in several institutions including Pondok Modern Darussalam Gontor Ponorogo and International Islamic University Malaysia and is more in line with Islamic Sharia.
Regardless of the various pros and cons of having student loans, all parties certainly hope that education in Indonesia will be better, through student loans or other things which will then have a positive impact on the quality of our human resources so that they can create a much better national economy. As students, what we can do is continue to study well according to the chosen program and remain critical and wise students in facing various challenges in society in the future.
Author: Science ACSES FEB UNAIR 2018
Work Program: AcSES Iqtishoduna Discussion
Moderator: Sigit Awwaludin
