Background: Indonesian state universities with legal-entity status (PTNBH) have broader financial autonomy than other state universities, raising concern that their single tuition fee (UKT) is higher. Quantitative comparisons remain scarce. Objective: To compare the highest UKT group between PTNBH and non-PTNBH universities and to check whether location on Java is associated with it. Methods: Exploratory cross-sectional study of 20 state universities using the highest UKT group for the 2024 SNBP admission track, compiled by news media from official campus websites. 2024 PTNBH status came from published lists (16 PTNBH, 4 others). Analysis used Welch and Mann–Whitney tests, a permutation test, and OLS on log UKT with HC3 errors. The PDDikti portal and official campus UKT pages were inaccessible, so data are secondary. Results: Mean highest UKT was IDR 22.56 million for PTNBH (SD 7.15) and IDR 21.70 million for others (SD 9.22). The difference was not significant (Welch p = 0.78; Mann–Whitney p = 1.00; permutation p = 0.84). The PTNBH coefficient was 0.089 (p = 0.79) unadjusted and −0.059 (p = 0.85) adjusted for Java location. With only four non-PTNBH universities, the study could detect only about a 2.6-fold difference. Conclusion: This sample gives no evidence that PTNBH differ in the UKT ceiling, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Program-level UKT data for all state universities are needed to test it.
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