Becoming World-Class: A Challenge Faced by Indonesian Universities
Author: Ignatius Tri Endarto
Nowadays, universities all around the world are competing to be world-class, including those in Indonesia. A number of educational consultancy companies such as, QSTopuniversities and Webometrics Ranking Web of Universities, provide us with worldwide university ranking systems which are based on certain sets of criteria. Most of the top ranked universities are those from developed countries, such as the United Kingdom and United States, which have been established for several hundred years, like Oxford, Cambridge, and Yale Universities. The most prestigious universities in Indonesia, namely the University of Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada, and Bandung Institute of Technology, based on both QS and Webometrics are still excluded from the world’s top 200 list.
In this globalized era, the Indonesian higher education cannot keep on hanging within the national frame. As the future of education inclines toward global education, much effort still needs to be made in order for Indonesian universities to gain better international recognition.
In general, Indonesian universities still possess low research intensity. According to the Indonesian coordinating minister for human development and culture, Puan Maharani, as cited in Tribun Nasional, “the Indonesia’s total budget for research is only 0.08 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) … which is far below the budget recommended by UNESCO.”
Besides research intensity, it is hardly possible for a university to be a world-class one without being well-equipped with world-class learning-teaching systems and facilities. What is meant by world-class systems and facilities are those that can well support academic staff and students to keep up with the qualities of education of the so-called developed countries.
The most urgent yet obvious facility vital to education that needs to be improved in Indonesia is the internet connection. The internet is so far the most-prominent “door” to knowledge utilized by the 21st century’s world-class universities. The low internet speed in Indonesia is perhaps one of the factors that greatly contribute to the small number of published research journals and articles. Not to mention, other facilities such as classrooms, libraries, and laboratories, are also of importance in uplifting the quality of education.
The Indonesian lecturers also should change their learning-teaching models into more research-based ones. Teaching students to get good grades or GPA is far from enough. In reality, good grades do not always create good researchers, inventors, and innovators. To be able to compete in this rapid changing world, the Indonesian education paradigm ought to be shifted from teaching students how to remember things to teaching them how to research, invent, and innovate things. Instead of providing students with “solutions”, lecturers need to present them with “problems” to solve.
Last but not least, the government and universities should promote research culture in all fields of study by creating opportunities for all Indonesian researchers who have the potential to solve problems faced by the country in particular, and the world in general. Research follow-ups and implementation are the things that need to be emphasized and facilitated by the government and universities so that the research conducted could really carries out its functions of creating innovations and fostering excellence for the benefit of not only the nation but also the world.
Online version of this article was published in 2015 at:
www.giv.news/23251/becoming-world-class-a-challenge-faced-by-indonesian-universities/