TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Pressure rises on govt to curb illicitly gained professorships
Amid an ongoing investigation into 11 professors alleged of academic fraud, a Tempo report has found that the illicit practice goes all the way to the government, potentially damaging trust in Indonesia's higher education.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Stock illustration of graduation cap and diploma. (Shutterstock/Farit juliardi)
A
uthorities are investigating 11 faculty members at Lambung Mangkurat University (ULM) who have been accused of violating academic ethics to earn their professorships, as public pressure rises on the government to sanction academics of similar cases plaguing the country’s higher education.
The state university in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, became mired in controversy in recent weeks after an anonymous whistleblower reported that at least 11 of its professors had published academic papers in problematic journals.
Publishing at least one paper in an academic journal and teaching for at least 10 years are among the requirements for a lecturer to apply for a professorship, according to a circular issued in May by the Higher Education Directorate General of the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry.
The circular specifies that the journal must be a world-renowned publication, but the 11 ULM professors are alleged of resorting to publishing their papers in so-called predatory journals: publications that essentially operate on a pay-to-publish basis with minimal peer review and an acceptance rate of nearly 100 percent.
The whistleblower’s tip prompted the education ministry’s inspectorate general to open an investigation late last year, which the ULM leadership followed up by forming a team to conduct an internal probe.
“Several colleagues and I were asked by the rector to form a fact-finding team,” ULM deputy rector Iwan Aflanie said on Sunday, as quoted by Tempo.co.
Iwan said the team had gathered the names of potential members and submitted the list to the ministry, adding that it aimed to confirm the results of the ministry’s prior investigation into whether the 11 professors had committed academic misconduct.
