Ministry of Higher Education to Close Study Programmes Irrelevant to Industry
The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology plans to close various study programmes assessed as less relevant to the needs of industries driving future economic growth. This plan was conveyed by Secretary General of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Badri Munir Sukoco, at the National Population Symposium 2026 in Badung Regency, Bali, on Thursday, 23 April 2026.
Badri stated that this plan will be executed in the near future. He then urged universities to willingly select which programmes need to be closed.
“Later, there may be some that we must execute in a not too long time regarding the study programmes; we need to select, sort, and if necessary, close them to increase relevance,” said Badri Munir Sukoco, as monitored from the YouTube replay of the Ministry of Population and Family Development.
Badri explained that this step is taken to reduce the gap between university graduates and the competencies required by the workforce. The Ministry of Higher Education records that campuses graduate up to 1.9 million bachelor’s degrees each year. However, according to Badri, these graduates struggle to find jobs because the needs in the field do not match their educational backgrounds.
Therefore, the government plans to control this gap by closing several irrelevant study programmes and focusing on those that enter the industrialisation world. Some of them include energy, food, health, defence, maritime, downstreaming, digitalisation, and advanced manufacturing. “Actually, what study programmes are needed in the future, that’s what we will try to compile later together,” said Badri.
According to him, the high gap between graduates and industry needs is triggered by many campuses that often open study programmes based on market desires without considering their suitability with the workforce. One of them, Badri mentioned, is that social sciences and education programmes are experiencing oversupply or excess supply of graduates.
For example, the teaching or education major produces 490,000 graduates each year, while the need for prospective teachers is only 20,000 people. As a result, the remaining graduates who are not absorbed become educated unemployed. “As a result, there is an excess supply there; I can check as well, for example, in 2028, we will actually have an excess supply of doctors. If this is left alone, especially if there is mal-distribution, imbalance in distribution in each region,” said Badri.
Badri emphasised that Indonesia’s demographic bonus must be accompanied by the relevance of higher education. On that basis, Badri invited universities, especially members of the PTKP Consortium, to help the government select which study programmes are still relevant.
“The study programmes need to be adjusted; new programmes need to be developed that match the eight strategic industries; of course, there needs to be willingness from each rector to conduct studies, adjusted so that the programmes are indeed relevant,” he said.