Scrap research in ministries: Experts

Leo Wahyudi S, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Educators proposed on Friday that the government scrap research institutions in its ministry offices and entrust research activities to universities.

They said that reassigning research activities to universities would improve efficiency and reduce government subsidies to higher education institutions.

Thoby Mutis, rector of Trisakti University in Jakarta, said that research activities conducted by ministries, including the office of the state ministry for research and technology, were generally both ineffective and inefficient.

Thoby said that research activities in government offices had never produced optimum results because the job was more "political" in nature than scientific.

"Therefore the government should scrap research institutions in the ministries, which spend trillions of rupiahs of taxpayers' money every year for unsatisfactory results," he said as quoted by Antara.

Offices of the various ministries generally have departments named "Litbang", meaning research and development.

Thoby said that universities assigned to do research for government projects, which were commonplace in countries like the U.S. and Australia, would produce better qualified graduates.

Those two countries are leaders in the research and development field because their governments entrust the research task to the universities. This had been luring students from other countries to study in the U.S. and Australia, he said.

Universities could cooperate not only with the government but also with industry, he said.

Support also came from Hasbullah Thabrany, deputy of the Center for the Study of Health Economics at the University of Indonesia.

Thabrany said that research institutions in government offices lacked effectiveness because their work was carried out by underpaid officials who wanted to earn extra income.

He said the kind of research that should be assigned to the universities was that concerning complicated scientific and technological issues.

"Quick research for internal purposes in the ministries can still be done by their research institutions," he said.

Thabrany stressed that the issue was not simply one of shifting funds from the ministries to universities but rather of developing a "research culture" at the university level.

"I am afraid that otherwise universities will just turn into commercial institutions and lose their educational mission," he said.