Unair Lecturer Reveals Rp 2.6 Million Basic Salary, Sparking Debate on Academic Welfare

Testifying before the Constitutional Court, Cenuk Widiayastrisna Sayekti, a non-civil servant lecturer at Universitas Airlangga (Unair), revealed that her basic monthly salary is just Rp 2.6 million. Her total monthly income, including a professional allowance, meal allowance, and rice allowance, amounts to approximately Rp 3.3 million. Her testimony has drawn public attention to the welfare of lecturers. Cenuk was a witness in the judicial review of Law Number 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers, specifically cases Number 272/PUU-XXIII/2025 and Number 24/PUU-XXIV/2026, filed by the Campus Workers Union. The petitioners argue that Article 54 paragraph (1) of the law, which regulates functional allowances for lecturers, fails to provide legal certainty as it does not stipulate a standard of adequacy or guarantee that lecturers’ income meets minimum living requirements. Consequently, lecturer welfare is seen as dependent on the policies of individual universities and the government. Responding to the testimony, Unair argued that a lecturer’s income cannot be measured by basic salary alone. Cenuk, who began her career in 2010 at Lancang Kuning University with a salary of Rp 1.2 million, earned her doctorate from Macquarie University in 2016 and obtained her lecturer certification in 2020 before joining Unair in 2022. She stated that despite over a decade of experience and a doctoral degree, her basic income remains extremely limited. She also noted that the uncertainty of her income, which largely depends on components outside the basic salary, has impacted her academic freedom. She recounted being summoned by her superiors after criticising a state institution on social media and participating in a 2025 International Workers’ Day rally, after which her teaching load was reduced and she was removed from several academic teams. Cenuk also shared that her application for a home loan was rejected because her income was deemed insufficient, forcing her to seek additional work as a consultant. Radian Salman, Unair’s Director of Human Resources, Talent Management, and Organisational Development, stated that a lecturer’s income should be assessed based on total take-home pay, which includes a fixed monthly functional allowance, family allowance, and an additional mid-month functional allowance payment. He added that lecturers also receive a 13th-month salary, an income improvement allowance, and a holiday allowance equivalent to one month’s basic salary, bringing the total annual income to 14 times the monthly salary. Lecturers can also earn variable income from meal allowances, certification allowances for non-civil servants, and additional work such as supervising community service programmes, examining, marking, and incentives for scientific publications. Radian noted that the university implements a biennial salary increase, though the amount is relatively small, ranging from approximately Rp 96,000 to Rp 120,000 based on the basic salary increment. Regarding Cenuk’s specific case, Radian stated that university data shows her total income in 2025 reached approximately Rp 94 million to Rp 95 million per year, averaging around Rp 7.8 million per month. As of July 2026, Cenuk had reportedly received over Rp 50 million, averaging around Rp 9.2 million per month.