University board drains funds

From Media Indonesia

One of the aims of the establishment of the Coordinating Board of Private Universities (Kopertis) in the New Order era was to control the number of students at private universities whose total was 10 times that of students at state universities.

The concrete form of control is the status of the private university and its curriculum. In its development the board has been a big burden both on state funds and on the quality of private universities. In the final instance, the burden is borne by private university students and the public.

The waste of public funds is as follows: it is estimated that many Kopertis teachers are employed as permanent staff at private universities. The Indonesian Christian University (UKI) has 50 of them, another 50 teach at Tarumanegara University and some 150 at Trisakti University. At those universities alone there are already 250 teachers salaried by the government and employed by the private universities. If each teacher receives a monthly salary of Rp 1 million from the government, the public contributes Rp 250 million a month to the private universities.

How much government assistance is given to, say, one hundred private universities in Jakarta, and to thousands of them in the whole of Indonesia? Should public funds be given to such trustworthy and rich universities like Trisakti, UKI and Tarumanegara? On the other hand many poor people need funds urgently. Is the situation just? Is education currently not an attractive business? As for the academic quality, professional associations like the IDI for medical doctors, PII for engineers, ISEI for economists, etc. should supervise the quality of private universities.

In a meeting of private university teachers, some of them suggested the dissolution of Kopertis because there are indications of mismanagement. It is highly unfortunate that the private university students are resigned and apathetic, showing no efforts to reform Kopertis.

The dissolution of Kopertis will enhance the capacity of the community (private universities) and will economize billions of rupiah a month of public funds. The case of Kopertis is very attractive material for the media to investigate and to disclose.

HARYO MATARAM

Jakarta