Ministry of Education to Form University Teams to Assist Local Governments in Addressing Regional Issues

Brian Yuliarto revealed this after a meeting with Prabowo at the Palace in Jakarta on Monday (4/5/2026). During the meeting, Prabowo asked Brian to report on the readiness of study programmes, lecturers, and expert staff at higher education institutions to contribute directly to society, particularly in supporting the performance of local governments.

“So, the President asked us from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology how far the progress is on the various study programmes and lecturers who can help local governments,” said Brian.

This directive aligns with the government’s focus on encouraging universities to become more actively involved, such as in waste management, environmental arrangement, and regional beauty and cleanliness programmes. Fields like architecture, environmental engineering, and mechanical engineering are considered to have an important role in supporting these programmes.

“As we know, the President gave instructions and directions some time ago; universities, especially fields relevant to regional needs like waste handling, tidiness, related to the President’s ASRI programme,” he continued.

“How local governments can be helped and backed up by university researchers and professors in related fields, like architecture for beauty, then environmental engineering, mechanical engineering for waste and so on,” Brian added.

In the future, every province down to regency/city level is expected to have a team from higher education institutions that functions as a strategic partner to regional heads. This team will act like assistants providing research- and knowledge-based input to help solve local regional problems.

“So the President asked about the development of that; it’s hoped that every region, province or city/regency, has a university team that will later become like an assistant to the regional head, helping to solve problems. That’s what was conveyed to us,” said Brian.

Brian will conduct consolidation with various universities in Indonesia. The formation of this team is expected to align with his programme, where educational and research activities are not only focused on academics but also provide real benefits to society.

“So later we will consolidate the universities, so for example ITB, or UI or UGM and all universities, some universities will form teams, in a manner of speaking, to give input for solving problems in the regions,” he said.

“So this is also in line with our Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology programme to have an impact. So how the research and teaching in universities are relevant to the needs in each region. The President just asked for it to be more structured so that all universities can play a role,” Brian added.