Lecturers are not doing enough research: Experts
Lecturers are not doing enough research: Experts
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian lecturers are spending too much of
their time lecturing and too little on research at the expense of
their own academic quality.
Speakers at a seminar on the situation of Indonesian lecturers
said universities and colleges should take some of the blame
because they are burdening their staff with too many teaching
assignments and are not encouraging them to do more research.
"Lecturers hardly have time for research," Soemarmo Markam, a
professor of medicine at the University of Indonesia, told the
seminar on Wednesday, which was organized by Atmajaya University.
Soemarmo said the promotions of lecturers at universities also
depends on the amount of research they carry out, not just on
their lecturing capability.
Iwan Kurniawan, an Atmajaya University staff lecturer, said
that the college authorities could rectify the situation because
they are the ones who give out lecturing and research
assignments. "Don't force a lecturer to teach too many teaching
assignments because teaching takes a lot of time and there is
nothing left for anything else."
Iwan said that the college authorities should allow their
faculty to choose what they want to do, whether to become a
teacher or a researcher, and they should also give credit points
for research activities.
The seminar, held as part of the 22nd commemoration of
Atmajaya University's research center, discussed how to apply the
concept of Tridharma, the three principles of the university: to
teach, to carry out work for society and to research.
Speakers at the seminar debated how much time a staff lecturer
should allocate for each of these three factors, but most agreed
that too little time is being expended on research at present.
There were arguments about the definition of the second
principle, with many saying that teaching and researching are
work for society.
Efficiency
Conny Semiawan, former rector of IKIP (teachers' training
institute) in Jakarta, argued that staff lecturers should be able
to allocate their time wisely between the three, with some
overlapping for the sake of efficiency.
"Teaching need not be in a class. It could be done in a
laboratory as they carry out their research," she said.
Irwanto, from Atmajaya's research center, said many lecturers
are under tremendous pressure because they are expected to
produce high quality students and also take on more teaching
assignments to cover shortages in the teaching staff.
Conny said universities are doing a disservice to students if
they do not carry out enough research.
The universities should instill in their students' minds that
research is an important part of the academic world, she said.
She also called for improvement in the way the government
assesses the performance of faculty, giving more weight to
quality research papers.
"The regulation is good, but unfortunately the board who
judges their performance tends to look at the quantity of
research and not the quality of the papers," she said. (01)