Improving higher RI education

Improving higher RI education

By A. Chaedar Alwasilah

BANDUNG (JP): Over 470,000 high school graduates took the
university entrance tests this year, competing for some 74,000
seats at 45 public universities. This is heartening to hear
during the crisis, given the increased needs for professional
skills. Yet by international standards, our universities seem
less competitive.

In its June 30 edition, Asiaweek magazine reported a survey of
the leading universities in Asia. For the multidisciplinary
schools category, University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada
University, Diponegoro University and Airlangga University ranked
respectively at 61, 68, 73 and 75 among the 77 leading
universities.

For the general and science schools category, Bandung
Institute of Technology ranked 21st among the 39 leading
institutes surveyed.

That five universities here are recognized among the best does
bring pride, however, as a nation with a population of more than
200 million, we are clearly far behind.

Public or private university administrators should consider
the nine variables evaluated in the survey: academic reputation,
student selectivity, faculty resources, research, financial
resources, ratio of students to academic staff members,
percentage of graduate students to total students, citation in
international journals, ratio of teachers to researchers and
Internet bandwidth per student.

Centralized governance and educational policies have been
blamed for creating the abyss between Java and outside Java.
There are more than 1,300 public and private universities
accommodating about 2.5 million students. The challenge is how to
improve the quality of these institutions, bringing them closer
to the five model universities.

By international standards, quality tertiary education is
measurable and evident in the above nine variables. Considering
the limited funds, priorities are essential, which is where
"strategic planning" in developing higher education comes in.

Education experts say such planning covers a long-term period
and tends to define major outcomes several years in advance.
Among other things, it identifies directions and seeks to align
the concerned institution with its environment to help assure
long-term stability and survival. Strategic planning is also an
ongoing process.

In the Indonesian context, first, improvement should account
for geographical disparities, which has led to an increasing
brain drain for the home provinces. It is therefore
understandable that most regions are unprepared for regional
autonomy. Improvement should hence be more of a priority in
universities outside Java.

Second, improvement entails mobility in which researchers and
lecturers move from one university to another for a fixed or
indeterminate period. Mobility not only widens their general and
social qualifications, but it also functions to share faculty
resources and research, both of which constitute the spirit of
universities.

Mobility would also induce institutional change and reduce the
tension of divisive forces. This would lead to reborn
universities becoming a melting pot of academic staff and
students of various ethnic and religious backgrounds.

The motto of Bhineka Tunggal Ika (diversity in unity) has
falsely been interpreted in educational policies of imposing
uniformity at the cost of neglecting diversity. Universities all
over the regions should be empowered to establish their own
distinguishing characteristics. Academic quality and reputation
naturally develops based on one's own uniqueness rather than on
imposed uniformity.

Distinguishing characteristics are essential for establishing
a benchmark as a means of setting a competitive advantage.

Third, essential to higher education improvement is
decentralization, to minimize the gap between universities and
the local government. Under decentralization schemes,
universities should function as an agent of social and cultural
transformation within their own area first.

Universities should therefore regularly consult the local
government when designing academic programs relevant to the job
market available in the area.

Fourth, higher education improvement implies assurance of
universities to prepare competitive graduates for the 21st
century; strategic planning should thus anticipate emerging modes
of learning.

Developing quality higher education should never be perceived
as developing a few out of a hundred universities. Higher
education should be made accessible for all citizens. And this is
possible only when all universities receive equal attention from
the government; when they are empowered to establish themselves,
and when the provincial governments are recognized as potential
partners.

The writer is a senior lecturer at the graduate school of
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in Bandung, West Java.