Coming soon: University Inc. and education 'business'

Erwida Maulia ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 07/04/2008 11:08 AM  |  National

A bill to refashion the country's universities as "corporations" in a bid to push them to become world-class institutions is nearing its final stages.

Deliberations on the bill to make education institutions into legal entities were nearly complete, National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo said Thursday.

GOLDEN JUBILEE: National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo (second left) leaves the stage after opening the Frontiers of Knowledge symposium held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Indonesian Studies department at the University of Sydney, Australia.(JP/P.J.Leo)

"Now we're close to finishing the political process in the parliament to produce a brand new law making education institutions into legal entities, just like a corporation," Bambang said in his address to the Frontiers of Knowledge symposium, sponsored by the University of Sydney, Australia.

"Once it is approved by the government and the parliament, then all universities, either public or private, will become autonomous legal entities; they will be given full autonomy."

He said autonomy meant all universities would have the freedom to develop their own resources and academic capacities, as well as to mobilize their own financial resources."With autonomy, higher education institutions can set their own targets to excel and develop their own areas of specialization to become world-class universities. So if they fail to become good universities, it is their own failure," the minister said.

Since the launch of the campus autonomy policy in 2000, seven of the 82 state universities have been granted legal entity or autonomy status.

They are South Sumatra University, University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Bogor Institute of Agriculture in West Java, Bandung Institute of Technology and Indonesian Education University in Bandung, Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and Airlangga University in Surabaya.

The high cost of tertiary education has been under scrutiny since then, with subsidies for these state universities gradually being cut.

The universities used to recruit students through joint national selection tests, first known as Sipenmaru, then UMPTN and then SPMB, with UMB and SNMPTN being the latest monikers.

But they now have started recruiting students through their own admission tests, resulting in higher tuition fees.

Many academics and members of the public have criticized the autonomy policy, claiming it represents an attempt by the government to "run away from its responsibilities" and to "commercialize education".

Lawmaker Cyprianus Aoer, a member of the House of Representatives Commission X for education, sport and tourism, confirmed that deliberations of the bill, submitted to the House about a year ago, were 80 percent complete.

He told The Jakarta Post that legislators and the government had agreed on most issues in the bill, but they were still debating the amount of funding the government should provide for institutions.

"Ideally, one-third should be the government's responsibility, one-third should come from the community and the remaining third should come from students' parents. The composition is unclear now," said the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmaker.

He said the House was proposing a special chapter on funding to avoid giving the impression the bill was "an attempt to liberalize and commercialize education".

Rather, the bill aims to provide a legal basis for universities to conduct educational activities so all education institutions will be transparent and accountable in their financial management, he said.

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