Prabowo Orders Universities to Form Teams to Assist Local Governments in Resolving Issues

JAKARTA - President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto has ordered universities to form teams to assist local governments (pemda) in resolving problems in their respective regions.

“So earlier, the President asked us from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Kemendiktisaintek) how far the progress has been on departments, study programmes, and lecturers who can help local governments,” said Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Mendiktisaintek) Brian Yuliarto after a meeting with Prabowo at the Presidential Palace Complex in Jakarta on Monday (4/5/2026).

According to Brian, this directive from President Prabowo had been conveyed some time ago.

“How local governments can be assisted and backed up by universities, researchers, and professors in related fields, such as architecture for the beauty of parks, environmental engineering, mechanical engineering for waste and so on,” Brian stated.

He explained that during today’s meeting, the Head of State inquired about the progress regarding that directive.

Prabowo also hopes that every region will have a team that can provide input to local leaders.

He continued that this directive aligns with his ministry’s programme to ensure that research and teaching at universities are relevant to the needs in each respective region.

Brian stated that he will follow up on Prabowo’s directive by conducting consolidations with several universities.

“For example, university A, ITB, or UI or UGM and all universities, some universities, they will then form teams, so to speak, to provide input for resolving problems in the regions,” he said.