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Lecturers, rectorate agree to settle SBM ITB autonomy dispute
The Bandung Institute of Technology’s (ITB) rectorate struck a deal on Monday with the university’s School of Business and Management (SBM ITB) to allow the latter to resume classes after a dispute over its status as an autonomous institution.
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The Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). (Courtesy of ITB/itb.ac.id)
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he Bandung Institute of Technology’s (ITB) rectorate struck a deal on Monday with lecturers in the university’s School of Business and Management (SBM ITB), paving the way for the latter to resume classes after a dispute over its status as an autonomous institution.
At the heart of the dispute was a decision made by ITB rector Reini Wirahadikusumah to issue a decree that revoked SBM ITB’s autonomous right to manage its own financial affairs. The move aimed to integrate the business school’s human capital, finance and remuneration system with the rest of the university.
The decree was issued in response to the Supreme Audit Agency’s findings in 2018, which ruled that SBM ITB’s authority to independently manage its financial affairs contravened the university’s 2013 statutes.
Monday’s agreement, announced after ITB leadership spoke with SBM ITB lecturers, ended a strike initiated by the SBM ITB Lecturer Forum in response to the decree.
The strike was announced on March 8, with the lecturers saying they would neither hold classes nor provide other academic services, and advised students to self-study, a move they said was part of the “rationalization of academic services".
“During the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, we agreed that […] a group of SBM ITB’s lecturers will not [continue] their strike,” ITB spokesperson Naomi Haswanto said on Monday, adding that there would be follow up meetings to further discuss issues left unresolved from Monday’s meeting.
Echoing Naomi, SBM ITB professor Sudarso Kaderi Wiryono, who is also part of the SBM ITB Lecturer Forum, said all academic services at the school would return to normal, including teaching, mentoring and the admission of new students.
