UI to raise public participation

JAKARTA: The University of Indonesia's new rector has promised to increase public participation at the institution in its drive to democratize its education system.

Usman Chatib Warsa said that the public had been increasingly demanding democratization. "This new education paradigm means that we return part of the responsibility to improve our human resources to the public," he said at the graduation ceremony of 2,148 postgraduate students at the university in Depok, West Java, on Saturday.

He told Antara that the government continued to exercise the right to design policies on national education. But the university, as an education institution, has the autonomy to manage the institution according to national policy, he said.

He did not elaborate on how the democratization would materialize.

"We, therefore, have to be responsible to the public concerning the quality of our graduates, the efficiency and the relevancy of our research and to the public's needs," he said. --JP