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Resty Woro Yuniar

On what was once a palm oil plantation outside Bogor, Indonesia’s government is planting the seeds of a new institution designed to nurture the next generation of leaders.
But President Prabowo Subianto’s ambitions for the University of the Republic of Indonesia (URI) do not stop at statecraft – officials have also billed it as the answer to the Southeast Asian nation’s shortage of technological talent.
“We have such abundant natural resources, but to this day we are technologically behind,” Aris Marsudiyanto, head of the cabinet-level Agency for Development Control and Special Investigation, said on July 23.
Whether a single state-backed institution can train all the scientists, engineers, doctors, civil servants and future presidents required is unclear, however.

Questions have also been raised about how many resources will be diverted from existing campuses to support the URI’s development.
The university is set to be led by a governor, with Prabowo inaugurating Donny Ermawan Taufanto, a retired air marshal and deputy defence minister, as the first on July 22.
State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi told reporters the government had “learned from several countries that have educational institutions specifically designed to prepare future leaders”, citing France’s National School of Administration, now the National Institute of Public Service – the alma mater of former presidents Francois Hollande and Jacques Chirac.
While the university’s initial core mandate is focused on civil service training and executive leadership for state enterprises, Aris also pointed to doctor shortages to justify URI’s STEM ambitions.
The World Health Organization recommended one doctor per 1,000 people, he said, but Indonesia was “very lacking” with fewer than one per 2,100 in urban areas – or a ratio of 0.47 per 1,000. In rural areas it was “maybe 0.27”, or about one doctor per 3,700 people.

The government has yet to disclose the URI’s budget, though Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa previously suggested that some of the funding could come from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology’s existing allocation.
The Bogor campus is intended to be the first of 10, according to Donny, with existing bodies such as the State Administration Institute – the government agency tasked with state civil service training and public policy development – apparently set to be absorbed along the way. Education officials have stressed, however, that a multi-campus expansion remains under review.
The URI joins a growing roster of flagship educational projects from Prabowo, including the Sekolah Rakyat (People’s School) for disadvantaged children and Sekolah Garuda (Garuda School) for the academically gifted.
Identity crisis
Observers say there is little need to build a state-funded university from scratch at a time when established institutions are under financial strain and student enrolments are declining.
Jannus Siahaan, a sociologist and independent public policy analyst, said the university’s dual mandate reflected a “lack of clarity of institutional identity”.
STEM education required “a long-term research ecosystem, laboratories, academic autonomy and a scientific culture”, he said, while schools modelled after the French system were typically “rooted in the formation of an administrative elite through rigorous selection and a public policy curriculum”.
“If designed with great discipline and consistency, URI has the potential to become a flagship institution that can accelerate talent development in strategic sectors,” he said.

It could also become “a policy laboratory to integrate education, research and national needs more directly”, Siahaan said, though both these outcomes would hinge on it being “truly given substantial resources, academic autonomy and global recruitment standards”.
He also questioned the use of “governor” for the URI’s chief, arguing the term “reinforces the suspicion that URI was designed more as a state instrument for the reproduction of particular elites”. In other countries, heads of universities are typically referred to as presidents, chancellors or rectors.
Indonesia already has more than 4,300 higher education institutions, or one for every 66,000 residents – a denser ratio than in Japan or Australia, according to Media Wahyudi Askar, founder and director of public policy at the Centre of Economic and Law Studies think tank.
He said the problem was not a scarcity of universities but a lack of investment in the ones that existed, with underfunded research, a lack of scholarships and 5.7 trillion rupiah (US$315 million) in debt still owed as “performance allowances for state-employed lecturers”.
There’s no rationale to spend trillions of rupiah on building new universities
Media Wahyudi Askar, public policy analyst
“There’s a lot of homework [still to do] to improve existing universities,” Askar said, noting that many were unable to raise their own funds and remained reliant on government support. “There’s no rationale to spend trillions of rupiah on building new universities.”
Askar said he delivered the same verdict to Britain’s Russell Group, an alliance of 24 research universities, after it sought his opinion on the URI programme during a meeting earlier this year.
“I answered that, fiscally, the plan was not possible,” he said.
Last week, he wrote to the group, urging it to “seek independent perspectives” before lending its name to the initiative. He is still waiting for a reply.
In Jakarta, lawmakers are asking their own questions. Hetifah Sjaifudian, who chairs the parliamentary commission overseeing education, said her team was pressing the higher education ministry for answers.
“We support innovations aimed at advancing national education, but policies of this magnitude must be formulated in an accountable and needs-based manner, and it must have clarity on its formal legal basis,” Hetifah said in a statement on Tuesday.
“It must not lead to overlapping functions … within the existing higher education ecosystem.”


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Indonesia

Kindergarteners wearing graduation gowns wait to have their photographs taken at a museum in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in May. Photo: AFP

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto inaugurated the URI’s first governor on July 22. Photo: dpa

A doctor gives a medical consultation to a patient at a clinic in Denpasar, Bali. Indonesia has only around one doctor per 3,700 people in rural areas. Photo: AFP

New students gather after arriving on their first day at a new “Sekolah Rakyat” in Aceh Besar, Indonesia, on Thursday. Photo: EPA

The Science Techno Park building at the University of Indonesias campus in Depok, West Java. Indonesia already has more than 4,300 higher education institutions, or one for every 66,000 residents. Photo: AFP

Limited dual citizenship gives Indonesian diaspora hope of return, better future

A passenger jet lands at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport during sunset in Badung, Bali, Indonesia. Photo: AP

A view of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Indonesia’s limited dual citizenship scheme is open to individuals whose skills are considered strategically important, such as scientists, medical specialists and athletes. Photo: Shutterstock 

Indonesians walk on a pedestrian bridge in Jakarta. More than 8,000 Indonesians have applied to renounce their citizenship over the past five years. Photo: EPA-EFE

‘Micro-discrimination’ against Indonesians? Bali run club controversy revives concerns

Participants during one of Entourage’s activities in Bali, Indonesia. Photo: Handout

Some Indonesian residents in Bali say they have been excluded from joining the Canggu-based Entourage running club. Photo: Handout

Tourists walk along a street in Sanur, Bali, Indonesia, in June. Photo: EPA

Entourage has denied excluding Indonesians from its activities. Photo: Handout

How cheap AI is undermining Indonesia’s academic credibility

Observers say the rise of AI in Indonesian academia has “altered the cost structure of dishonesty”. Photo: Reuters

Copenhagen. The International Society for Pneumonia and Pneumococcal Diseases conference was held in the Danish capital. Photo: Shutterstock

Brian Yuliarto, Indonesia’s minister of higher education, science and technology. Photo: Instagram/brian_yuliarto

Indonesia’s anti-LGBT education push raises concerns about stigmatising youth

Protesters march with banners against the LGBT community in Banda Aceh in December 2017. Photo: AFP

Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Legal, Human Rights, Immigration, and Correction Yusril Ihza Mahendra. Photo: Reuters

Anti-LGBT demonstrators march in Bogor, outside the Indonesian capital Jakarta, in 2018. Photo: AFP

Anti-LGBT protesters during a rally in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2016. Photo: AFP

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Jakarta has a shortage of future leaders. It also lacks technical talent. President Prabowo’s solution? Build another university


Jakarta has a shortage of future leaders. It also lacks technical talent. President Prabowo’s solution? Build another university.


Indonesia to train next ruling class at elite new university

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Jakarta has a shortage of future leaders. It also lacks technical talent. President Prabowo’s solution? Build another university

Jakarta has a shortage of future leaders. It also lacks technical talent. President Prabowo’s solution? Build another university