Apriadi Gunawan

Apriadi Gunawan The Jakarta Post Medan

The state University of North Sumatra (USU) may become the country's second profit-oriented college after the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), which recently changed its non- commercial corporate status amid rapid education development.

USU leaders have proposed changing the university's non- commercial status in order to be able to freely raise tuition fees and other funds to improve education quality at the university.

The decision was announced by USU Rector Chairuddin P. Lubis during a ceremony marking the university's 44th anniversary on Tuesday.

Present at the event were North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin, foreign diplomats, rectors from other universities, local military and police chiefs, USU students and its alumni graduates.

Chairuddin said the decision was made during a meeting of senior USU leaders on Aug. 23.

"The change in the university's status is based on the prevailing conditions and the results of observing the development of universities in Indonesia in the last 10 years, in which higher education institutions have faced drastic changes," he said.

The decision followed the increasing involvement of many profit-making sectors in dealing with higher education colleges, and the advancement of global technology, which all required the changes of educational systems and management, he added.

"The status change will also shift the vision of the USU to become 'a university for industry'," the rector said.

He said the status shift would empower his university to privately raise funds through its business activities and to recruit and pay for more staff and lecturers.

The government would not cover the costs of new staff but would still temporarily cover the salaries of current USU lecturers and staff officials, despite the change of its status, he said.

The university will have to cover all the costs of salaries after a 10-year transitional period, he said.

"The status of the employees will no longer be civil servants, but they will be hired on the basis of contract agreements. The USU has the right to lay off those deemed unproductive," the rector said.

Chairuddin said the government had so far provided the university with Rp 38 billion per year to pay the salaries of 1,652 employees, including lecturers, and Rp 10 billion for yearly development programs.

Governor Rizal welcomed as a positive step the planned change of the USU's status, saying the move was in line with the new laws offering autonomy to the education sector.

The government had recently inaugurated the new status of the state-run ITB to become a profit-making education institution in relation to the national campus autonomy programs.

Apart from the ITB, the government has also planned to make several other leading state universities, including the University of Indonesia, the Gadjah Mada University and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, pilot programs for the campus autonomy policy.

However, these three universities have yet to respond to the government's plans.

Under the autonomy plans, universities are allowed to establish business cooperation more freely with other parties, and that the rector is no longer appointed by the education minister but by a board of trustees comprising representatives from the government, students and the community.

Only the ITB has its new rector appointed by its board of trustees, not by the national education minister.