Lecturer laments student apathy

BOGOR, West Java (JP): A university lecturer has criticized Indonesia's students, saying that they generally tended to be individualistic, apathetic and unaware of what is going on in society.

"Many of today's college students only want to finish their studies as soon as possible, and then secure jobs that can support them financially, that's all. They do not have any great sense of social solidarity with their environment," Rais Ahmad, a deputy rector of Ibnu Khaldun University in Bogor, told The Jakarta Post here yesterday.

The deputy rector made these remarks in connection the graduation day for 201 students of the oldest private university in Bogor on Tuesday.

He said yesterday that, as educated people, college students were morally obliged to keep an eye on what is going on around them.

"In the rapidly changing situation we are witnessing now, college students must respond to changes before anybody else does. In fact they should spearhead things, be in the thick of it," Rais urged.

Rais acknowledged however that making students more sensitive to events taking place in society was easier said than done. "This is because it has a lot to do with one's moral attitude." (21/bas)