Students Chant 'Liar' During Meeting with Deputy Minister of Higher Education Fauzan

Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Fauzan was dubbed a liar by students demonstrating at the Ministry of Education on Tuesday, 4 May 2026. A crowd from the University of Indonesia hurled the word ‘liar’ in the final minutes as Fauzan responded to various criticisms and demands from the students.

Fauzan began his remarks by stating that the students’ various demands during the commemoration of National Education Day 2026 also represented the government’s resolve to improve education policies. He claimed that the Ministry of Higher Education had a focus on combating cheating and behaviours contrary to Indonesian national morals and ethics.

‘Let us together make the campus a fortress of morals, a fortress of ethics, so that if any behaviours are found in your respective campuses that are deemed unpleasant or injurious to ethics and morals, I invite you to communicate directly,’ he said amid the crowd in front of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology office.

Before delivering his response, Fauzan had listened to various student aspirations calling on the government to halt the free nutritious meal project, reject plans to close several study programmes, and promote transparency in handling campus sexual violence cases.

On that occasion, Fauzan denied that the government intended to close campus study programmes that were no longer relevant to industry needs. Instead of closure, he described it as restructuring of study programmes.

‘That means restructuring does not mean closing. Restructuring means strengthening the study programmes. And this is not just an issue of teacher training, but also other study programmes,’ he stated.

He further emphasised that sexual harassment on campus is an immoral act that must be eradicated. The Ministry of Education, he said, is obliged to be the first party to provide defence and protection against deviant matters.

According to Fauzan, students are agents of control in the course of education. He promised open communication access to students, not limited to dialogues in his office or during demonstrations alone.

‘I consider your thoughts to be clear, unburdened by anything except the interest in making Indonesian education more advanced,’ said Fauzan.

Fauzan then explained several government efforts to advance education in the country. For example, revitalising infrastructure in primary and secondary schools and building Garuda schools in remote areas for equitable access to education. He also touched on the issue of improving lecturer quality.

‘This includes improving human resources, improving lecturer human resources. We have a programme that we are currently developing and hopefully it can be realised because according to data, lecturer human resources especially in 3T areas indeed need attention,’ he said.

Immediately after that, several University of Indonesia students wearing yellow alumni jackets interjected Fauzan’s statements by calling him a deceiver. ‘Liar, liar, liar,’ shouted the group of students. For several moments, the word was repeated continuously.

Fauzan’s speech was also paused for a few seconds. But he continued by stating that the government intends to prepare a special scholarship scheme for lecturers in 3T areas.

He promised to follow up on the students’ demands according to applicable mechanisms. Fauzan also claimed to have noted the proposals conveyed by the students and said he was ready to discuss them at any time in the future.

‘I hope you are mature in responding to this situation. You may note my mobile phone number. You can meet me in this office at any time,’ he said.

Fauzan then ended the audience session around 5:00 PM WIB amid increasingly heavy rain. The demonstration crowd from the All-Indonesian Student Executive Board or BEM SI Kerakyatan and the Cipayung Plus Alliance gradually dispersed as Fauzan entered the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology building.

However, a small portion of the crowd remained on the command vehicle and wanted to convey aspirations because they had not yet had their turn. At the beginning of the audience, there was some commotion when several students pushed each other to get a spot near Fauzan.