Controversial plan for foreigners to boost campus rankings

A plan by the Indonesian government to recruit its first university heads from overseas by 2020 in order to improve research quality and boost the country’s performance in global university rankings, has provoked controversy among academics in the country.

“Next year, there should be a state university led by the best foreign rector and by 2024 at least five state universities [will] follow suit,” Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Mohamad Nasir said this month, adding that the rationale behind the plan was to lift a number of Indonesian universities to world-class level.

While the idea of recruiting foreign rectors was first mooted by the government in 2016, this is the first time the minister has set a target date.

Nasir said that by hiring foreign rectors, he hopes to see one or two Indonesian universities among the top 100 universities in world rankings, referring to global rankings produced by QS, Times Higher Education and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The 2018 QS World University Rankings put three Indonesian state institutions – the University of Indonesia, the Bandung Institute of Technology and Gadjah Mada University – at 277th, 331st and 401st place respectively.

Nasir noted the experience of Singapore, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, whose universities had “achieved success” in part because they had many foreign lecturers and university rectors. “We have to do the same,” he said, adding that foreign university heads also came with broad global networks.

Officials said selection from overseas would be to “international standards” and would include some additional requirements such as being able to drive more research and secure more sources of research funding.

New regulations

The move will require an amendment to current regulations. Existing regulations, known as the 2012 ‘Rule No 12’, only allow for cooperation with foreign institutions in research and learning.

There has yet to be formal consultations with universities – which has led to criticism of the plan by academics – but the government has been preparing the rules for recruitment. The minister said his office is selecting two to five state universities as pilot projects for foreign rector recruitment.

Mulyadi Hamid, rector of Fajar University, said government would need to allocate more funding for universities to pay for foreign academic staff and it would lead to a pay gap between local and foreign lecturers. “This will create a new problem,” he said.

Indonesia’s Antara news agency reported that Nasir is coordinating with the finance minister on a budget for recruitment of rectors from abroad. “The funding is directly from the central government, so as to not disrupt the finances that exist in higher education institutions,” Nasir was quoted as saying on 22 July.

Opposition to the plan

However, a number of Indonesian rectors oppose the plan, saying that the main problems hindering the performance of Indonesian universities are not due to leadership. The question many are asking is why Indonesian rectors can’t carry out the plan.

Nasir responded adamantly: “Which rector has been able to bring his university to the world-class level? Who? None of them yet. I challenge any of the Indonesian rectors.”

Asep Saefuddin, honorary board member of the Indonesian Rector Forum and head of the University of Al Azhar Indonesia, said the problems of university performance rest not merely with their leaders but also redundant administration, the merit system, low budgets and low wages for academics.

“Indonesian universities are not autonomous. Rectors have no full authority in finance, research administration, lecturer recruitment and syllabus making,” Asep said, adding that foreign rectors would be overwhelmed by these problems and would not be able to change the situation.

“Getting foreign rectors is not a solution,” he contended.

Joni Hermana, rector of Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology in Surabaya, argued that having foreign rectors or lecturers would not necessarily lead to better quality or better rankings performance. The University of Indonesia ranks 296 among the world’s top 500 universities, while the University of Malaya ranks 70, despite the former having many more foreign lecturers.

“University of Malaya is better in its faculty-student ratio and academic reputation,” Hermana noted.

The deputy speaker of the Indonesian parliament, Fahri Hamzah, said it was the education minister’s duty to improve the quality of Indonesian universities. If he had to hand leadership positions out to foreign rectors “he has failed”.

Community outreach goes beyond rankings

The rector of State Islamic University (UIN) Bandung, Mahmud [one name], told University World News he and his academic staff were working hard to bring the university to world-class levels “with or without a foreign rector, and we are making progress”.

“During the last three years, we pushed researchers to increase research publications. We digitalised our library so that everyone can get access to quality books, journals and other documents,” he said.

Last year the university was awarded for high research productivity by Indonesia’s citations and expertise system, the Science and Technology Index or SINTA, run by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education. “Our hard work paid off. But this is just an initial step towards being a world-class university.”

Mahmud said he also pushed his heads of faculties to improve quality. “They signed an agreement with me that each of them would be able to achieve ‘A grade credit’ after two years in their post.” Mahmud was referring to quality assurance evaluations by the national accreditation body BAN-PT, which is an independent organisation recognised by government. The top grade is ‘A’, and the evaluation is updated annually.

National values

Apart from sidelining local leadership potential, foreign rector recruitment would affect local and national values, argued Taufiq Rahman, head of social and political studies at UIN Bandung.

“We uphold the so-called Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi, which literally means ‘three dedications of the university’. They are research, education and community service. This set of national values makes Indonesian universities different from their foreign counterparts.

“Both lecturers and students must show a record of community service which qualifies them for further career [moves],” Rahman said. Global rankings do not include measures of community outreach or any measures of the common good in their indicators.

“Our lecturers provide regular mentoring to the community on issues they encounter,” he added. “Our students would not qualify for the final exam if they have not gone through KKN” – the Indonesian acronym for ‘Real Study and Work’. Under the KKN scheme, final-year students are assigned in groups to rural areas to undertake social work in local communities.

Rahman said the university should also be able to utilise the community’s knowledge, traditions and local issues for further science development by making them accessible for international research. For example, his institution is a centre for Sundanese Islam studies, which draws the interest of foreign researchers. The Sundan people are a native ethnic group of Java island.

Education Minister Nasir has refuted that national values would be undermined by foreign rectors and faculty, arguing that higher education is already borderless, as is information technology.

And the fluidity goes both ways. “We cannot prevent Indonesian students from studying in foreign universities. They have been doing it through distance learning with America, Europe and Korea,” the minister noted.