Universities and schools
Journalism education is taught in universities through the study program of Communication Science. In 2017, there were 421 study programs of communication for undergraduate level, 42 for master degree and 5 for doctorate program. Not all the study programs offer the same quality, which is established by the National Accreditation Board for Higher Education (or BAN-PT). In 2017, from a total of 421 study programs of communication at undergraduate level, only 30 (7.1 percent) have obtained the highest quality grade (accreditation A).
The degree of competition to enroll in the communication study programs of state universities shows how much students appreciate this field. In 2016, the number of students accepted in the state universities especially to study communication was only 3 percent of the total of the applicants. The competition grades (the number of available chairs compared to the number of applicants) of the communication program in several universities are as follows: University of Indonesia (2.23 percent), Gadah Mada University (1.43 percent), University of Padjajaran (1.61 percent), University of Airlangga (2.91 percent), University of Hasanuddin (1.69 percent), University of North Sumatera (2.76 percent), and Bogor Institute of Agriculture (3.32 percent).
The total number of students of communication science is between 15,000 and 20,000 people every year. It is important to notice that this number includes all fields. In Indonesia, higher education in communication generally is divided in 5 fields: journalism, broadcasting, advertising, public relations and marketing. Interestingly, not all graduates of journalism and broadcasting work within the media. Many graduates in journalism work at banks or other industrial sectors. On the other hand, media also tend to recruit journalist from other disciplinary fields. These candidates are then provided specific training.