Anies Baswedan's Comments on the Ministry of Education's Plan to Close Irrelevant Study Programmes
Former Minister of Education and Culture Anies Baswedan has responded to the government’s proposal to close study programmes that are not relevant to industry. He stated that the plan is concerning and raises questions.
“There are policies that appear efficient in the short term, but if not handled carefully, they could steer the nation’s journey in the wrong direction in the long term,” Anies said in a post on his personal X account @aniesbaswedan on Saturday, 25 April 2026.
He said that pure sciences are often viewed as distant from practice. Anies likened pure sciences in Indonesia to an ivory tower that stands tall but does not directly touch the pulse of industrial needs.
In fact, he said, pure sciences are the root of most innovations used in daily life today. “Formulas that seem abstract, theories once considered ‘useless’, have actually given birth to technologies that we now take for granted,” he stated.
Anies said that pure sciences form the foundation built by previous generations of scholars. Even research conducted through pure sciences is not based on market demands as per current industrial needs.
“But out of curiosity to understand how the world works,” said the former Governor of Jakarta.
In addition, Anies stated that relevance is not always measurable in a short time horizon. According to him, what currently appears irrelevant to industry may in the future become the backbone.
Anies is worried that the approach used by the state in producing thinkers from universities by closing study programmes considered no longer relevant creates pragmatism. Indonesia, he said, risks becoming mere users rather than creators.
Moreover, he believes that strong public policies come from a solid basic understanding, such as epidemiology, environmental science, or theoretical economics. Anies said all those fields are rooted in sciences often seen as impractical.
“Closing or weakening pure sciences means reducing our ability to understand the world deeply. Without that understanding, our decisions easily become shallow,” he said.
Nevertheless, he stated that the connection between university disciplines and industry is indeed important. However, he said universities must not lose sight of the needs of the times.
Therefore, to address that challenge, the solution is not to close pure sciences or study programmes no longer relevant to industry. Anies believes the government should bridge and strengthen the ecosystem instead of closing it.
Because, he said, the goal of higher education is not merely to produce workers for industry. More than that, Anies said higher education is meant to prepare for the future and build the nation’s civilisation.
“Therefore, what we need to maintain is balance. By maintaining that balance, we can stand tall as a nation that not only follows global progress but also creates it,” Anies said.
Previously, the plan to close study programmes deemed irrelevant to the workforce was conveyed by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Badri Munir Sukoco, at the 2026 National Population Symposium in Badung Regency, Bali, on Thursday, 23 April 2026.
He explained that this step is taken to reduce the gap between university graduates and the competencies needed in the workforce. The Ministry noted that universities graduate up to 1.9 million bachelor’s degrees each year. However, he said, those graduates struggle to find jobs because the needs in the field do not match their educational backgrounds.
One of them, Badri mentioned, is that social sciences and education programmes are experiencing oversupply or excess graduate supply. Badri said the plan to close irrelevant programmes will be executed soon. He then asked universities to be willing to select which programmes need to be closed.
“Later, there may be some that we have to execute in not too long regarding the programmes; we need to select, sort, and if necessary, close them to increase relevance,” said Badri Munir Sukoco, as monitored from the YouTube replay of the Ministry of Population and Family Development.