Minister Brian Criticises Indonesian Culture of Obsession with 'Professor' Title

Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Brian Yuliarto has criticised the Indonesian cultural habit of being overly eager to be addressed by academic titles such as professor. He noted that the culture of pursuing education merely for the sake of a title does not exist in other countries. Brian pointed out that some individuals even request to be called ‘Prof’ before their official graduation certificate has been issued. “We sometimes ask to be called ‘Prof’ even before the decree is out. We get the information, ‘Oh, you’ve passed, sir,’ and then ‘Call me professor from tomorrow,’ even though the decree hasn’t been issued yet. Yes, we still need to work on this,” Brian said during his speech at the orientation for the Unggul Garuda Senior High School Transformation and the briefing for 2026 Garuda Scholarship recipients at the Ministry’s office in South Jakarta on Thursday, 9 July 2026. He reminded the Garuda scholarship recipients not to perpetuate such a mindset, emphasising the importance of humility. According to Brian, individuals with brilliant careers are not arrogant. “Great people don’t create much drama, they don’t show off; they work with perseverance,” he said. He also advised the scholarship recipients who have been accepted to study abroad to seek out mentors and learn as much as possible from them. Brian cited his own mentor, Omar M. Yaghi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-American chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2025 for pioneering Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). Brian recounted that he has collaborated with Yaghi since the 2000s and first met him in Korea around 2008 or 2009. He expressed deep admiration for Yaghi, describing him as a humble person who refused to be addressed by his academic titles, simply saying, “Just call me Omar.”