{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1841221,
        "msgid": "unair-lecturer-reveals-rp-2-6-million-basic-salary-sparking-debate-on-academic-welfare-1783209099",
        "date": "2026-07-05 06:24:00",
        "title": "Unair Lecturer Reveals Rp 2.6 Million Basic Salary, Sparking Debate on Academic Welfare",
        "author": "",
        "source": "TEMPO_ID",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": "Social Policy",
        "summary": "A non-civil servant lecturer at Universitas Airlangga has testified before the Constitutional Court that her basic monthly salary is only Rp 2.6 million, highlighting the precarious financial situation of academics. Her testimony, part of a judicial review of the Teacher and Lecturer Law, has drawn public attention to the lack of legal certainty regarding functional allowances and minimum income standards for lecturers. The university responded by stating that total take-home pay, including various allowances, is significantly higher, but the case underscores broader concerns about academic freedom and welfare.",
        "content": "<p>Testifying before the Constitutional Court, Cenuk Widiayastrisna\nSayekti, a non-civil servant lecturer at Universitas Airlangga (Unair),\nrevealed that her basic monthly salary is just Rp 2.6 million. Her total\nmonthly income, including a professional allowance, meal allowance, and\nrice allowance, amounts to approximately Rp 3.3 million. Her testimony\nhas drawn public attention to the welfare of lecturers. Cenuk was a\nwitness in the judicial review of Law Number 14 of 2005 on Teachers and\nLecturers, specifically cases Number 272\/PUU-XXIII\/2025 and Number\n24\/PUU-XXIV\/2026, filed by the Campus Workers Union. The petitioners\nargue that Article 54 paragraph (1) of the law, which regulates\nfunctional allowances for lecturers, fails to provide legal certainty as\nit does not stipulate a standard of adequacy or guarantee that\nlecturers\u2019 income meets minimum living requirements. Consequently,\nlecturer welfare is seen as dependent on the policies of individual\nuniversities and the government. Responding to the testimony, Unair\nargued that a lecturer\u2019s income cannot be measured by basic salary\nalone. Cenuk, who began her career in 2010 at Lancang Kuning University\nwith a salary of Rp 1.2 million, earned her doctorate from Macquarie\nUniversity in 2016 and obtained her lecturer certification in 2020\nbefore joining Unair in 2022. She stated that despite over a decade of\nexperience and a doctoral degree, her basic income remains extremely\nlimited. She also noted that the uncertainty of her income, which\nlargely depends on components outside the basic salary, has impacted her\nacademic freedom. She recounted being summoned by her superiors after\ncriticising a state institution on social media and participating in a\n2025 International Workers\u2019 Day rally, after which her teaching load was\nreduced and she was removed from several academic teams. Cenuk also\nshared that her application for a home loan was rejected because her\nincome was deemed insufficient, forcing her to seek additional work as a\nconsultant. Radian Salman, Unair\u2019s Director of Human Resources, Talent\nManagement, and Organisational Development, stated that a lecturer\u2019s\nincome should be assessed based on total take-home pay, which includes a\nfixed monthly functional allowance, family allowance, and an additional\nmid-month functional allowance payment. He added that lecturers also\nreceive a 13th-month salary, an income improvement allowance, and a\nholiday allowance equivalent to one month\u2019s basic salary, bringing the\ntotal annual income to 14 times the monthly salary. Lecturers can also\nearn variable income from meal allowances, certification allowances for\nnon-civil servants, and additional work such as supervising community\nservice programmes, examining, marking, and incentives for scientific\npublications. Radian noted that the university implements a biennial\nsalary increase, though the amount is relatively small, ranging from\napproximately Rp 96,000 to Rp 120,000 based on the basic salary\nincrement. Regarding Cenuk\u2019s specific case, Radian stated that\nuniversity data shows her total income in 2025 reached approximately Rp\n94 million to Rp 95 million per year, averaging around Rp 7.8 million\nper month. As of July 2026, Cenuk had reportedly received over Rp 50\nmillion, averaging around Rp 9.2 million per month.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/unair-lecturer-reveals-rp-2-6-million-basic-salary-sparking-debate-on-academic-welfare-1783209099",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}