Scientific effort: A researcher works in a level-3 biosafety laboratory (BSL-3) of the Biomedical and Health Basic Technology Center in Jakarta.

Scholars may invest a lot of time and energy in pursuing their academic goals in order to make their home country a better place. But the brightest minds of the nation are often underpaid.

Catootjie Nalle is a star scientist. In 1999, she won an Australian government scholarship to study at Queensland University where she graduated with a Master in Animal Nutrition.

A few years later, the New Zealand Government recognized her talents and offered her a place at Massey University. She graduated with a PhD and returned to her job at Kupang State Agriculture Polytechnic in East Nusa Tenggara.

Catootjie, 44, spent more than seven years studying overseas much of that time as a single mother caring for her son. Back home, she is one of the best qualified nutritionists in the Indonesian poultry feed business, and the first woman at her polytechnic to gain a doctorate. Her research abilities have attracted laboratory equipment grants from the Asian Development Bank.

Catootjie lives in a tiny house in the high-cost province and can only afford a motorbike. As a department head of the polytechnic, she gets a monthly salary of Rp 9 million (US$687). Yet by local academic standards, that’s a handsome wage.

Indonesian education institutions do graduations well. Staff in faux-ermine robes and tasseled mortar boards shuffle to the flower-strewn stage for Indonesia Raya, hands on hearts.

The nervous students and their awestruck parents often believe that the rewards must be great to match the prestige these learned ones bring to the institution and our nation. But once the ceremony is over, reality can hit them harder than expected.

Indonesia still doesn’t pay its scholars well or even appropriately, English language lecturer Aam Alamsyah says. He claims poor salaries and conditions are not just crippling professionals’ careers; they are throttling the nation’s advancement and international reputation.

Alamsyah has been researching employment conditions while studying for a doctorate in linguistics at Atma Jaya Catholic University. He teaches at private colleges in Jakarta and Tangerang, Banten, and recently presented a paper on tertiary education salaries at an international conference.

He claimed some school teachers were getting allowances and incentives that lifted their income above higher qualified academics.

“University staff face many problems, and the most disturbing is their remuneration,” he said. “Low wages run against workforce laws. They force scholars to moonlight rather than concentrate on their students,” he said.

Despite academics being considered important for Indonesia’s development the government leaves pay in the hands of the institutions. Lecturers struggle on their own since there is no substantial legal body to defend their rights.

“Though faculties of business, engineering and information technology usually offer more, many lecturers survive on less than Rp 3 million a month,” Aam said.

That amount is below the 2017 provincial minimum wage for Jakarta’s workers that was set at Rp 3.35 million in October.

But universities are supposed to be temples of learning, not factories rolling out identical gizmos. They never omit the comparative adjective when describing their role as “higher educators”.

Aam is not howling alone in the wilderness. Economist Jonathan Pincus, a teaching fellow in the Development Studies Centre at Cambridge University, wrote in The Jakarta Post that “Indonesian lecturers are promoted based on seniority rather than research or teaching performance. The rules make it difficult for lecturers to change universities, which effectively eliminates competition to hire the most productive scholars or the best teachers. Academic departments routinely hire their own graduates as lecturers, a practice that encourages patronage and favoritism and discourages competition.”

Although Indonesia has almost 2,500 tertiary institutions, few rank well. The University of Indonesia just squeezes into the world’s top 400 as listed by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) annual report, but the rest are still seeking the start line.

The production of scholarly papers in learned journals recognized internationally is a handy guide to a nation’s intellectual thrust. Indonesia ranks 57, below Malaysia (35) and Thailand (43).

Alamsyah said universities barely invested in their academic human resources.

“Few campuses are willing to pay their lecturers to do research, or even try to help them publish their work in journals,” Aam said. “There are also private colleges and universities using the notorious ‘home base’ racket.”

In this illegal scheme campuses offer small sums for the right to include an academic’s name on their faculty list to meet staff quotas. They blatantly neglect other aspects of lecturers’ welfare such as a basic salary, overtime, research pay and health insurance.

“The wealthy and prestigious campuses usually spend as little as Rp 1 million for a doctoral graduate, and half that for a master’s. School teachers and public servants are then hired to lecture at low rates, but the teaching hours are credited to the ‘home base’ academic.”

Alamsyah’s wish list includes erasing this scam and the national government getting tough over accrediting new colleges.

He wants salaries that recognize scholars’ qualifications and status, and an end to student “tipping” — a ruse that he alleged is used to “respect the noble deeds of the teacher”. These practices masquerade as ikhlas beramal (willing to donate) or sedekah (giving alms).

“Better remuneration will boost lecturers’ dignity and confidence to serve their students without moonlighting or getting involved in graft,” he said.

“There’s evidence of a strong correlation between improving education and declining corruption. That alone should be good reason for reform.”

Overseas pay

In countries like Australia with powerful unions, minimal academic salaries are negotiated and set by legal awards with terms and conditions.

For example, an associate lecturer at the University of New South Wales would start on an annual salary of A$70,000 (US$52,104) or about Rp 58 million a month.

In the US at the University of California, an assistant professor gets $5,000 a month while in the UK an academic at Cambridge might begin at £3,300 a month.

Although factors like tenure, insurance and costs of living can warp these figures, academics in the West are well paid by comparison with their colleagues in Indonesia.

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