Building autonomy in Indonesia's state universities

By Iwan Pranoto

BANDUNG (JP): Universities are not merely buildings, but ideas and cultures remaking themselves. A university is not a place where professors just lecture on their subjects and present their thoughts, it is a place where learning and criticizing new ideas is actively encouraged. It is about finding alternatives.

This view has revitalized many modern universities and built strong links between academic society and the nation's life.

However, for ideas and cultures to remake themselves, universities need to be fully autonomous. It is a necessary condition for those ideas and cultures to evolve.

The necessity of university autonomy is highlighted by the directorate general of higher education in the new program to improve the quality of undergraduates in the country. It says that to improve the quality of services offered by a university, one has to increase its autonomy. This condition is grouped with three other factors which also help to improve quality: accountability, evaluation and sustainability.

Since private universities are more autonomous than their state equivalents, this article focuses on the latter.

To be autonomous, a university must have the freedom to select its own students and staff (teaching and administration), and to design and implementation its own curricula and develop and enrich its own academic values.

Other important aspects of autonomy such as financial management and university strategy are beyond the scope of this article.

It is difficult to say whether state universities have autonomy in the selection of students because the entrance test (UMPTN) is not conducted in a transparent manner. Results of the tests have never been publicly announced, despite the fact that state universities are funded with taxpayers' money.

The (undoctored) marks of those who sit the test each year should be announced, as should the minimum score required to enter each program of study.

Those who mark the test should be made accountable. Every participant should have the right to examine her or his answer sheets after the results have been announced to check whether or not they have been evaluated correctly. If a candidate finds a mistake in the evaluation, examiners should be compelled to mark that answer sheet again.

Each state university department should state their minimum entrance requirements. For example, an English department may set a score of 85 out of 100 in the English test as a minimum entry requirement. The same department may place a lesser emphasis on other tests in the entrance exam. Departments should register their entrance requirements with the university authorities before prospective students sit the entrance exam.

Ideally, we have to reform the UMPTN. The system we are using now is unaccountable and prone to abuse. First, the function of UMPTN must be transformed. Examining authorities should be responsible for holding the exam, marking the papers and publishing the results.

After that, students should be able to check whether their marks meet the entrance requirements for the study program of their choice.

Entrance requirements should only be set on the basis of intellectual ability and must not include race, ethnicity, religion or any other irrelevant facts. If students' marks meet the entrance requirements for a particular program then their applications have to be accepted by that university.

Moreover, each candidate must have the right to ask for a copy of his or her answer sheet -- the original is kept by the examining body -- and a copy of the answers, so the performance of the marker can be double checked, at a small monetary cost to the candidate.

A system of this nature would be akin to the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) examination.

The selection of university administrative staff is not that crucial. However, state universities do not have the full freedom to select their teaching staff. It is true that state universities are free to hire whomever they please, but the problem is that they are then unable to get rid of them.

A teaching career in the state universities is a job for life. Once you get the job, it is yours for as long as you want it. Even if you perform poorly, the job is still yours.

Teaching positions in state universities should be made renewable every five years. That would make for healthy competition for the posts and thereby improve the quality of teaching offered by the universities. Therefore, state universities must have autonomy to hire and fire their teaching staff as they see fit.

All universities, including private ones, must have full autonomy to designing and implement suitable curricula. More importantly, curriculum should be designed so that each student can follow and finish it in a designated time.

It should not so arduous that only exceptional students are able to follow it and it should include courses which students feel are necessary for their development.

Curricula and the way they are implemented should be evaluated on a regular basis by universities.

Finally, state universities must have the autonomy to develop and enrich their academic values. This last element is very important, but unfortunately it has often been neglected.

Two aspect of academic values that every member of the academic community must work to develop are critical thinking and living together. These two abilities will help to nurture a healthy democratic society.

Universities must do everything possible to enable students to develop these abilities through activities inside and outside the classroom.

Students should be encouraged to question statements accepted as truths during class time. They must learn to be skeptical, because skepticism is an essential characteristic of the critical thinker.

Moreover, students must have their imaginations challenged. They should be given enough time to explore their thoughts.

Problem solving classes should highlight the multitude of possible solutions to any one given difficulty because this will help students to learn to explore alternatives and be innovative. They will then discover how to think independently and will no longer have to depend on the authorities to learn the "truth".

Students must be enlightened so that they learn how to reason for themselves. This endeavor must be supported by an atmosphere which is neither intimidating nor authoritarian.

This will help students to learn to listen to their classmates' points of view, to disagree and to support each other's ideas and will also teach them how to live together.

Unfortunately, the opportunity to learn in such an atmosphere is very rare in state universities. It seems that universities still feel that such an atmosphere is not that critical to the learning process.

The motivation and ability of state university lecturers is low and most have to moonlight to supplement their pitifully low salaries. This fact excuses the inability of the academic community to create a healthy climate for their students.

The writer is a maths lecturer at Bandung Institute of Technology.