"I believe, ladies and gentlemen, the leaders of universities here want our students to be ready for the challenges of the future. I hope that through this webinar [...] the leaders of private universities will commit to transforming [digitally] in preparing our younger generation to achieve independent learning," Nadiem told a national education webinar on Wednesday, (31/3) held to coincide with the soft launch of the Edufecta app.

Edufecta is an e-learning portal that connects students across private Indonesian universities.

Also attending the hybrid event held at Gunadarma University in Karawaci, Tangerang, Banten, were representatives of the Association of Indonesian Private Universities (APTISI) and higher education stakeholders.

Minister Nadiem said that one of the ongoing and future impacts of digital disruption was change in the job marketplace. "By 2030, around 23 million jobs will be replaced with automated technology, along with the emergence of 27 million to 46 million new jobs of which 10 million never existed before."

This indicated we must all transform, he underlined. “We can no longer apply the same [methods] of learning as we did decades ago for our students who are facing the challenges of digital disruption.”

According to Nadiem, hundreds of thousands of Indonesian students, including students at private universities, had been competing in the last two years to earn a place on the seven programs under the Merdeka Belajar, Kampus Merdeka (Independent Learning, Independent Campus; MBKM) national campaign.

Students were eager to learn and seek off-campus experiences, but not all were able to take advantage of this valuable opportunity because they had been cut by their university’s administration system. Nadiem therefore asked that APTISI leaders and university administrators adjust their information management systems so that participating MBKM students would be able to transfer their MBKM program credits.

Edufecta was able to facilitate 160 private universities to accelerate the digital transformation of university education in collaboration with APTISI.

"We realize that in times like now, the need for technology is an inevitability. This is where Edufecta comes in to provide real solutions for advancing the world of Indonesian higher education," said Ucu Komarudin, the CEO of PT Technomedia Interkom Cemerlang, the company that developed the Edufecta app.

Ucu explained that the university digital acceleration program was developed from roadshows that visited various provinces at the beginning of this year. "From that, we saw the urgent need for a university information management application, especially to support the teaching and learning processes."

Billy Andrian, the CEO of IndoSterling Technomedia, added that the cooperation with APTISI had greatly benefited the development of university information management systems.

"So far, more than 160 private universities have been enjoying the benefits of Edufecta for the last 5 years. The university digital acceleration program offers grants worth Rp 5 billion," he said.

APTISI chairman M. Budi Djatmiko expressed appreciation for the concrete steps that had been made through the Edufecta portal in supporting the digital transformation of the education sector. Collaborating with private parties was key in the current digital era, he said.

"The private sector is one of the most important stakeholders in advancing our education world. [...] Edufecta is a positive response that we welcome with open hearts," he said.

Budi added that Edufecta’s university digital acceleration program was very much in line with the government’s MBKM movement.

"Collaboration among private universities [through] Edufecta is important for developing our education [sector]," he said.

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