College In Bali Allows Students Pay Tuition Fees In Coconuts

Feeling the pinch of the COVID-19 pandemic? A college in Indonesia's Bali has come up with a unique solution for its students' financial problem – coconuts.

Students of Venus One Tourism Academy, a college in Tegalalang, Bali, can pay their tuition fees in coconuts instead of cash. The college will then use them to produce virgin coconut oil, local publication The Bali Sun reported.

The college will also accept fees in the form of herbs like gotu-kola and morniga leaves, which are then used for making herbal soaps, according to the publication.

"At first we began an installment program to pay their tuition fees, but now we've become even more flexible. We've been producing Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) and we try to get them involved during the production process by paying their tuitions with only coconuts," Wayan Pasek Adi Putra, the director of the college, told the Bali Puspa News in October.

The students are also encouraged to resell their products inside the college campus in order to boost their business skills. "We have to educate them to optimize the natural resources in their surroundings. So when the Pandemic is over, they would be more than just a common workers," Putra told the Bali Puspa News.

Putra said the university has obtained an operational permit from the local government agency to operate the business.

The school has implemented several safety measures to halt the spread of coronavirus, including reducing the number of students per shift and carrying out frequent temperature checks, according to The Bali Sun.

Indonesia has 418,375 coronavirus cases as of Wednesday, with 14,146 deaths, data from Worldometer shows.

Bali, which relies heavily on tourism, will remain closed to foreign tourists until the end of 2020, given the mounting number of coronavirus cases. Authorities had considered opening the beach destination to foreign tourists from July but later scrapped the plan.