Regional universities need to focus on their regions

Regional universities need to focus on their regions

Kees Stigter, Visiting Professor in Africa and Asia,
Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Three years ago, Dr. Andi Lolo, cultural attache at the
Indonesian Embassy in the Hague, and a staff member of Hasanuddin
University, Makassar in South Sulawesi, asked for the attention
of Dutch universities for the neglected universities on the
eastern Indonesian islands outside Java.

He did so in an interview with Transfer, the Dutch journal on
international higher education. Unfortunately this was at a time
when in Europe "marketing" started to replace "development
issues" in higher education contacts with developing countries. A
visit of rectors of these universities to the Netherlands
notwithstanding, the reception of these ideas has remained rather
cool.

Two years ago, A. Chaedar Alwasilah, a senior lecturer in
Bandung, wrote in this newspaper that improving higher education
"should account for geographical disparities, which have led to
an increasing brain drain for the home provinces." It is
therefore understandable, he continued, that most regions are
unprepared for regional autonomy. "Improvement should hence be
more of a priority in universities outside Java."

Under decentralization, he said, "universities should function
as an agent of social and cultural transformation within their
own area first."

These ideas merit a follow-up. Funding is required for the
establishment of departments or even faculties of natural
resources management in the universities of neglected provinces.

With the provincial governments considered partners of the
universities in regional autonomy, there is ample space for joint
ventures with the universities. During visits to several regional
universities in Indonesia over the past years, local authorities
begged the universities to collaborate with them in performing
their new duties related to the management of natural resources
in the region. However, clearly also the universities are not
ready for this important task.

Yet it has not been considered the task of universities to be
partners with the government in problem solving. This was
understandable in the establishment phase of universities and
also is understandable for the growth of some leading
universities here.

However, the task of regional or provincial universities in
the present situation should be defined differently.

The experience in Sudan points in that same direction. As a
visiting member of staff of the University of Gezira, a leading
regional University in Wad Medani, Sudan, we were able to show
how challenging problem-oriented research could be at a
department of environmental sciences and natural resources within
a faculty of agriculture.

Supported by the Netherlands government, we worked in research
areas from selecting the best trees for efficient settlement of
blown sand to improvements in underground grain storage in
cracking clays, and from water waste in modern irrigation
practices to designing shelterbelts to halt the desert that is
encroaching into irrigated fields in the drying climate. Students
scientifically educated with solving such problems remain
suitable partners in development, also when they are part of the
labor market.

What we need now in Asia is the opposite of what is happening
in most of Africa. In Africa the emergency and relief funds have
replaced aid for structural development. Chaos and war and
economic malaise have replaced hopes for a better future. Natural
resources are either unused or sold for the benefit of a small
and ravaging elite.

In Asia we need to use natural resources and the human
resources for the benefit of all. This demands the use of local
adaptive strategies, contemporary knowledge and policy
environments. One such policy is more attention to education and
human resources development, including higher education.

In Indonesia the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has played a
useful role in funding programs in higher education. The next
program could be the support of regional Universities in the
establishment of departments or faculties of natural resources
management.

Leading universities such as the Bogor Institute of
Agriculture and Hasanuddin University in Sulawesi have indicated
they want to participate in training staff of the regional
universities in local natural resources management research.

However, the ADB has so far mainly worked with loans to the
Indonesian government for higher education program funding. This
appears to be an impediment for further programs of this kind
because of the reluctance of the Indonesian government to
accumulate new debts through new loans.

If neither the government nor ADB mitigate their policies,
which appears unlikely at present, the way out is local funding.
A decision in the newly amended Constitution stipulates that
centrally as well as regionally 20 percent of the budgets should
be used for education.

Though economists say this is not feasible, as far as higher
education is concerned, one could well imagine joint ventures of
central and regional governments and Universities in establishing
education facilities around important themes of natural resources
management. These should be established in the
regional/provincial Universities.

Some leading universities there and on mainland Java should be
involved in local staff development training at the S2 and S3
levels. The subjects of their courses and thesis should strongly
pertain to this management of natural resources in participatory
approaches with the local people.

This way, expertise and human resources would be built up that
could be beneficially used in the regions and could contribute
very much to the development of these regions and their
inhabitants. This would be educational money very well spent,
whether coming from the ADB or local sources.

Prof. Kees Stigter Ph.D. is engaged in experiments in higher
education in among others China, Vietnam and Indonesia (Java,
Madura, Sulawesi and Lombok).