Student Support

• Accommodation needs of Foreign Students

In Makassar, there are a very large number of Indonesian students who require accommodation. Many of the students are natives of Makassar and study from home so they do not require accommodation, but there are many who come from other towns in South Sulawesi Province or farther afield who require lodgings. Many house owners offer lodgings to students. These are called ‘kost’ and there are also hostels that have been built by private owners especially for students (these are called ‘rumah kost’).

Many students who come from outside Makassar to study in Makassar need ‘kost’ (lodgings). But they are often from poor families and therefore their main selection criterion is for their ‘kost’ to be low-cost.

Many house owners cater for this low-end of the market and provide ‘kost’ at rents in the range Rp 800,000 to Rp 1.2 million per month (USD 50 to 75).

But the quality of such lodgings is usually unsuitable for foreign students, who will generally wish to have a higher level of comfort (larger room, own bathroom, fridge, furniture, wi-fi). Such accommodation does exist in Makassar and is called ‘kost executif’ with rents up to Rp 5 or 6 million per month (USD 300 to 350). But there are a limited number of such ‘kost executif’ and they are often not located close to the various university campuses in Makassar.

• Offer a menu of options for accommodation

The Mission of PT ForSS is to increase the supply of such quality accommodation, which is suitable for foreign students who will generally have a much higher purchasing power than most Indonesian students. Foreign students will have chosen Makassar for their higher education studies primarily because tuition fees are very low compared with tuition fees in their home country. Their budget for accommodation will therefore be higher because they will have saved so much on tuition fees. PT ForSS will aim to provide these students with a menu of accommodation options and will manage the lodgings directly. This menu is likely to comprise:

• • Furnished rooms in houses that will be rented and furnished by PT. ForSS, with typically 4 to 5 students per house, each with their own room and bathroom.
  • Rooms in affordable hotels, which are located within a reasonable distance of the campus of the chosen university.
  • Rooms in existing ‘rumah kost’, when these are available.

• Refurbishment of existing houses

The property market in Greater Makassar is characterised by oversupply of large houses. There are dozens of real estate developments in Makassar, ranging from small developments of a few dozen units to large estates comprising several thousand units (which are developed in phases). This means that:

1. • Home buyers in Makassar have a very large choice of new houses; and
   • It is very difficult for house owners to sell larger existing houses because there is so much competition from new houses.

The result is that there is a very large number of unoccupied houses in some older estates (up to 30% of the total). They are unoccupied because the owner wishes to sell but cannot find a buyer. And the longer a house is unoccupied, the more the appearance of the house becomes uninviting, which makes it even harder to sell or rent out.

These unoccupied houses constitute a large amount of stranded capital which provide no return to their owners and no benefit to the community. PT ForSS seeks to rent such houses and refurbish them to make them suitable as ‘kost executif’ for foreign students, thus putting them to good use.

• Provide guidance services to applicants

We provide individualized guidance services at no cost to foreign students to assist them in selecting a university in Makassar and then guiding them through the corresponding admission process. These services include advice on selecting a course, provision of information on tuition fees, and guidance on obtaining student visas, opening bank accounts, obtaining health insurance, etc

There are 3 universities in Makassar which currently offer international courses with tuition in English i.e.

Universitas Hasanuddin (UNHAS), Universitas Negeri Makassar (UNM) and Universitas Muhammadiya (Unismuh). They each have a Kantor Urusan Internasional (KUI) or International Office which handles the international activities of the university, including the provision of support to foreign students.

ForSS does not try to compete with the respective KUI but can assist if the KUI has difficulty in providing the required support, primarily due to the language barrier. PT ForSS is an entity that can be contacted in English and which can act as an intermediary between the foreign student and the KUI to sort out any problem or misunderstanding.

• • Connect educators and potential students

We have established close-knit relationships with the universities in Makassar that are actively seeking international students. Through our support services, students can be confident they will find the university and course that best fits their objectives.