IKJ lacks education fund

IKJ lacks education fund

A four-day fine arts exhibition called "Concern for IKJ" has been held to raise funds for the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ), a higher learning institute that faces an annual shortage of funds to carry out its activities.

Assistant to IKJ rector, Wagiono Sunarto, said every year IKJ needed Rp 5 billion but that it received much less than this: a Rp 350 million subsidy from the Jakarta city administration and about Rp 2.8 billion from old and new students.

So, not all programs devised for the development of the students can be carried out and eventually the quality of its graduates drops.

If this lack of funds is allowed to continue, IKJ graduates cannot be expected to perform well in the community.

IKJ is not the only higher-learning institution suffering from a lack of funds. Many universities, state owned and private, are in the same boat. In line with the government's policy to allow state universities to raise their own funds, some state universities, for example, have established cooperation with businesses, especially their departments related to particular business enterprises. This may not be a suitable path for IKJ to adopt.

Perhaps, IKJ can imitate the University of Indonesia (UI). Recently, UI appointed five businessmen as members of its board of trustees, hoping that their donations may cover the university's budget deficit. This board is highly prestigious as it enjoys the right to elect the rector.

UI can raise funds in this way because by virtue of Government Regulation No. 152/2000 it is now a state enterprise and is therefore free to plan and implement programs to improve the quality of the courses offered.

As IKJ is legally under the Museum and Culture Service of the Jakarta city administration, IKJ must lobby the Jakarta city administration to accord it the status of an independent legal entity. Only then can IKJ freely raise funds and improve the quality of its programs.

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta