Public universities and higher education institutions are generally sought after by students and seen as more prestigious than private ones.
[2] Indonesian students from all over the country applied to the public universities, colleges, institutes, academies, and polytechnics through several different means of applications or exams.
These two national selections were formerly called SNMPTN (Indonesian: Seleksi Nasional Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri) and SBMPTN (Indonesian: Seleksi Bersama Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri).
[4] There are also another national entrance exams such as, SBMPN (Indonesian: Seleksi Bersama Masuk Politeknik Negeri) for state polytechnics,[5] SPAN (Indonesian: Seleksi Perguruan Tinggi Agama Negeri) for religious universities or colleges which is divided into SPAN-PTKIN for state-owned Islamic colleges[6] and Selnas-PTKKN for state-owned Christian colleges.
Technically and academically, the development of state religious universities is carried out by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemdikbudristek), while functionally it is carried out by the Ministry of Religion, all covering the five recognized religions in Indonesia, but not including Confucianism.