UI to raise public participation

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