Higher Education

Higher education institutions include academies, polytechnics, colleges, institutes and universities. Academies offer applied science education in one or part of a discipline, technology or the arts. Polytechnics offer applied science education in a variety of specific fields. Both of these forms of higher education are categorized as professional education. Colleges offer academic and professional education in one particular discipline. An institute consists of faculties offering academic and/or professional education in disciplines which belong to the same group of a professional field. A university consists of several faculties offering academic and/or professional education in several disciplines, technologies and/or the arts.

Higher education aims to prepare students to enter society with academic and/or professional skills that can be applied to further develop and disseminate science, technology or the arts, in order to improve the people’s welfare and enrich national culture. Higher education is not only managed by the government, but also by the private sector.

Enrolment of new students into a national university is based on the national entrance test and on the achievement-monitoring process, i.e portfolio assessment or PMDK. Those who are accepted through the PMDK procedure are not required to take an entrance test. However, this type of selection is not implemented in all universities.

To ensure that graduates are qualified, the development of higher education includes attempts to improve the quality of lecturers involved in academic activities and research by: providing additional training; improving the development of science and technology by encouraging research and development activities on the basis of present and future needs; developing the campus as a dynamic scientific enclosure with a national orientation outlook; developing centres of excellence for science, as a means for students and freelance scientists to develop and improve their professional skills in order to participate in the national development; and providing facilities with which to conduct education, research and the development of science and technology. Government subsidies are provided to gifted students of low economic status. However, educational equity needs to be improved by eliminating constraints that hinder gifted and talented candidates from receiving an education suited to their capacities. There is a need to develop the student admission process in order to identify students with the exceptional talent and qualifications required.

Higher education is constantly expanding at public and private universities and colleges. The gross enrolment rate in 1968 was 1.7% and there has been a consistent increase up to 10.2% in 1994, with the percentages of male and female students at 61.4 and 38.5%, respectively (the higher the level of education, the smaller the number of female students). The vast majority of senior secondary school graduates opt for the job market rather than higher education. An average of 14,540 additional teachers were recruited for higher education every five years between 1968 and 1993.

In 1979 a semester credit unit system was officially introduced and academic education was remodeled along the lines of the United States system—consisting of graduate, master’s and doctoral programmes. Simultaneously, another type of terminal programme was introduced, i.e. a non-graduate programme leading to a diploma.

Academic education consists of master’s and doctoral degree programmes. The minimum load of graduate programme studies is 144 semester credit units and the maximum is 160 semester credit units, scheduled for at least eight semesters and up to fourteen semesters after secondary education. The minimum load of a master’s degree programme is thirty-six semester credit units and the maximum is fifty; the programme should be completed in a minimum of four and a maximum of ten semesters, including thesis preparation after the graduate programme. The minimum load of a doctoral degree programme is forty and the maximum is fifty semester credit units, which is scheduled for at least four semesters and with the maximum study duration of ten semesters, including dissertation writing after the master’s degree programme.

Professional education consists of diploma programmes (Diploma I to IV) and specialist programmes (Specialist I and II). The minimum load of Diploma I programmes is forty semester credit units and the maximum is fifty (from two to four semesters after secondary education). The minimum load of Diploma II programmes is eighty semester credit units and the maximum is ninety (four to six semesters after secondary education). The minimum load of Diploma III programmes is 110 and the maximum is 120 semester credit units (six to ten semesters after secondary education). The minimum load of Diploma IV programmes is 144 and the maximum is 160 semester credit units (eight to fourteen semesters after secondary education).

The minimum load of Specialist I programmes is thirty-six and the maximum is fifty semester credit units (four to ten semesters after the graduate programme). The minimum load of Specialist II programmes is forty and the maximum is fifty semester credit units (ten semesters after the Specialist I programme or its equivalent). Professional education programmes require between twenty and forty semester credit units to form professional services abilities and are implemented within two to six semesters after a graduate programme.

The academic background of lecturers is quite low. In 1994/95, of 51,875 permanent staff at the public universities only 7% percent had a S-III (doctorate) degree; 23% had S-II (master’s) degrees; and the majority (70%) had S-I (graduate) degrees. The situation in private universities is not better. Out of 98,732 permanent staff, only 2% had S-III degrees; 12% had S-II degrees; and 86% had S-I degrees. Among the problems that currently affect higher education are the low salaries of the lecturers working in public universities, the shortage of rooms/space provided for lecturers, and their incapacity to read books written in foreign languages. Translated copies are scarce and the quality of available translations is low. In recent years, translation of textbooks has been promoted by the government.

The number of unemployed S-I graduates is very high while almost all D-III (diploma) graduates are employed. The provision of S-I graduates is far greater than the other diploma graduates in relation to the number needed by the world of work.

Universities are mostly producing social science graduates while the country needs more manpower with science skills. The universities are being encouraged to foster and develop study programmes that are better suited to the employment needs of the local environment, in order to boost development. They are also requested to help develop their environment by giving assistance to small and middle-sized industrial business enterprises and help them solve their problems. Co-operation between universities and the world of business and industry needs to be improved, for their mutual benefit. In particular, university research should be oriented towards the needs of business and industry.

The number of drop-outs at the higher education level is a serious problem. In 1994/95, the percentage of students graduating from public universities was 16% of the number of registered students (10.6% from private universities).

There are 51 public universities and more than 1,000 private universities with a total of 2,229,796 students enrolled (data refer to 1994/95; Islamic higher education enrolments—about 315,000 students—are not included). The quality of higher education needs to be improved, especially in the fields of science and technology to support future industry. The quality of higher education depends upon the quality of the research produced at the post-graduate level, hence the need to expand the master’s and doctoral programmes. The budget allocated for research and development in Indonesia is very small, only 0.2%. Research funds allocated by Bappenas to the Ministry of Science and Technology was 650 trillion rupiah in 1993/94, while higher education research only received 21.5 trillion rupiah through the Directorate of Research and Community Service of Higher Education. The latter figure was already a sharp increase, compared to 3.8 trillion rupiah in 1988/89. The increase was made possible through a loan from the World Bank and the agreed long-term Competitive Grants. Since funds are now regularly available, the strategy has changed to funding groups of researchers, long-term research, and research oriented toward the developing of science and technology or to helping solve development problems. The following research programmes are carried out at the university:

Various Science Subjects. This programme is directed towards the improvement of research in various science subjects. The number of activities increased sharply, starting from slightly less than 1,000 research topics submitted in 1988/89 to 3,200 topics in 1994/95. The total number of research topics was 15,000. There are research programmes in environment and in basic sciences. Topics in environment were conducted with the co-operation of the Centre for Environmental Studies, and the basic science research was conducted with the Research on Basic Sciences, which is associated with the Faculty of Mathematics and Science. Thirty percent of the topics were selected and all the universities made use of the facility.

Competitive Grants. Research programmes funded under this scheme started in 1992/93 and were targeted towards university lecturers who are productive researchers. The grant was to fund research projects of two to five years’ duration. These research programmes are expected to produce science and technology innovations or development problem-solving outcomes. For three years, a total of 2,000 research topics were submitted and 344 topics (or 17%) were recommended for funding. About 8% are at the S-I level; 28% at the S-II level; and 64% at the S-III level.

Integrated Research of Excellence. This programme started in 1993/94 and provided opportunities for capable researchers to conduct long-term research projects lasting two to four years. The multi-disciplinary approach is used and several research institutes are involved to improve efficiency. The outcomes of the research are expected to solve national development problems. About 60-70% of the total researchers involved are university lecturers. Funding is directly co-ordinated by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Centre for Inter-University Programmes. This programme started in 1986 and was developed within the framework of training and development in certain subjects requiring high investment in human resources, as well as infrastructure and facilities. It includes biotechnology, biology, food and nutrition, electronics, material sciences, social sciences and economics. The training is related to the post-graduate programmes and is located at: the University of Indonesia, the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, the Bandung Institute of Technology and the Gajah Mada University. Although the special PAU research programmes ended in 1994, the funds offered through these research programmes are relatively large and can be used for further years.

Other research programmes. Several other research projects at the Directorate General of Higher Education are also funded, although not on a large scale. For example: the East Indonesia Development Project in co-operation with Canada; the Six Universities Development and Rehabilitation project; the development of nine universities in the outer islands; the Centre for Rehabilitation of Tropical Forests project; etc. The Directorate General also co-operates with the Applied Agricultural Research Project and the Agricultural Management Project. The university itself also co-operates with other institutions or accepts to conduct research “on order”.

Government assistance to private universities is directed towards the improvement of the quality of the university itself. Private universities are partners in providing quality university graduates to meet the needs of the labour force. Aside from direct assistance, the government contribution to private universities includes the provision of lecturers and information to students and their parents for giving guidance to make their choice in enrolment. The provision of information is meant to enable the marketing mechanism to work more effectively and efficiently and to create an incentive for the private universities to enhance their efforts in improving quality.

In the year 2000, tertiary-level institutions enrolled a total of 3,046,162 students (of whom 2,039,167 in the private sectors) and had a total of 121,338 lecturers (68,725 in the private sector). The gross enrolment ratio was estimated at 11.9%. (MONE, 2001).