The team investigating the matter, appointed by the university’s board of professors and academic senate, is scheduled to announce its findings today. Regardless of the results, Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro must rise to the occasion and ensure our nation’s higher education institutions uphold, or reclaim, their integrity.

That does not mean that Satryo has to act against his fellow cabinet member Bahlil or other government and state officials who have obtained academic degrees through questionable means, considering the autonomy of higher education institutions. The higher education ministry does, however, need to set standards that give no room for abuse.

Indonesian universities have been lagging behind their counterparts in developed countries, even in the Asia-Pacific region, when it comes to academic achievement. To make matters worse, Czech researchers Vit Machacek and Martin Srholec found in a study conducted from 2015 to 2017 that Indonesia ranked second by country in the number of users of predatory journals, indicating a low level of academic integrity.

Bahlil, who is also the chairman of Golkar, obtained his doctorate four days before the inauguration of President Prabowo Subianto, who has kept him on as the energy minister.

The controversy centers on the fact that it took Bahlil just one year and 8 months to obtain the degree, which many say makes little sense, especially as he had to juggle his academic work with his duties as minister under former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

The SKSG has denied irregularities in the procedure to award Bahlil the doctorate. His advisor, Teguh Darnanti, said Bahlil had met the requirements for the degree with three publications, including one in an internationally renowned journal. He also said Bahlil had followed all the proper procedures to obtain the degree and had not published in any predatory journals.

National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) head Andrinof Chaniago, who teaches at UI’s School of Social and Political Sciences, said completing a doctoral program, even if it were research-focused, would take more than two years. Former coordinating human development and culture minister Muhadjir Effendy recalled that he took six years to finish his doctoral studies at Airlangga University, long before his appointment as a minister by Jokowi.

At any university, the purpose of doctoral education is to demonstrate high-level critical thinking by making novel contributions to the field being studied. Merely satisfying administrative procedures is insufficient to demonstrate such mastery and devalues the academic program itself.

As Andrianof puts it, a scholar in the making must read hundreds of books and academic articles representing different points of view to arrive at some level of mastery, which is time consuming.

The SKSG, however, insisted that Bahlil had been able to finish his studies on the economic impact of nickel downstreaming because he was dealing with the issue in practice on a daily basis.

The longer the controversy surrounding Bahlil’s doctoral degree remains unaddressed, the more likely it is that people with power and money can cut corners, if not years, in obtaining the degrees they covet. The country has seen many instances of politicians chasing doctorates, honorary doctorates and even professorships just for public prestige.

But that attitude only proves their incompetence; they think the purpose of an academic degree is to have a few letters to add to their name to cover their shortcomings. A degree obtained with that mindset isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.