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Higher Education Reform Toward Autonomous University : Lesson Learned from Indonesia. Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro Director General of Higher Education Ministry of National Education, Indonesia. Background.
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Higher Education Reform Toward Autonomous University : Lesson Learned from Indonesia Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro Director General of Higher Education Ministry of National Education, Indonesia
Background • 82 state owned higher education institutions (HEIs), treated as part of the ministry (government entity); • 2750 private owned HEIs, treated as the business arm for the foundation; • There is no independency for the HEIs in carrying out their mission as the moral force; • The HEIs become less accountable and less innovative due to the current status.
State Owned HEIs • Current regulations : state treasury, education system, and civil servant law; • Financing scheme : 60% from the central government and 40% from the students and other non-binding sources; • Financing level : under financed both for operation and investment (development); • Cost effectiveness : low due to the rigid organizational structure, rigidity in staffing (recruitment, promotion, termination), inflexible budget allocation and disbursement.
Private Owned HEIs • Current regulations : foundation, and education system law; • Financing scheme : partly by the foundation while most of the budget is collected from the students; • Financing level : under-financed due to low purchasing power of the community; • Cost effectiveness : high due to the survivability where sometimes quality is sacrificed.
Higher Education Reform • A new law is necessary for the establishment of a HEI as legal entity, so that HEI becomes autonomous; • Under the new law, HEI is able to take legal actions, govern the institution according to the good governance principles, and responsible for all of the undertakings; • Currently the legal entities are the government ( state owned HEIs) and the foundations ( private owned HEIs)
Autonomy and Accountability • Good governance principles require the institutions to be accountable to the public since they are using public money (directly and indirectly); • Accountability will be achieved if the decision making process is quick, applicable, and the decision is implemented immediately to create a positive impact; • Autonomy should then be given to HEIs to achieve accountability.
Reform Process • In 1999 a government regulation was enacted to allow the status shift from the state owned HEIs to become legal entities; • In 2000 there were 4 stated owned HEIs approved to be legal entities with transition period of 10 years; • In 2004 there were additional 2 state owned HEIs approved to be legal entities with transition period of 10 years; • Another state owned HEI was approved in 2006 under the same condition.
Reform Process (2) • The approval to be a legal entity is based on the readiness of the HEIs, they were evaluated based on their ability to conduct good corporate governance; • Some assistance will be provided for the HEIs; • Government put a special effort to enhance the HEIs to become legal entities by the provision of appropriate incentives; • It is actually the corporatization of HEIs.
Constraints • There is a need for a law on educational legal entity to provide the HEIs with autonomy; • The current government regulation (1999) is not adequate; • It is difficult to shift the mindset of the HEIs staffs from being secured employment to become merit based employment;
Constraints (2) • It is not easy to change the organizational paradigm from the previously hierarchical structured organization to become flat collegial flexible organization; • It is quite an effort to shift from the input based planning to outcome based planning; • The current reform has not yet touched the state treasury, fiscal, and the civil servant laws and regulations, and therefore the HEIs are facing the dilemma.
Constraints (3) • Corporatization tends to be misunderstood by the community as privatization, and then people protested against the concept of the new law for educational legal entity; • The facts are that some HEIs increase their tuition fee, is it a privatization ? They increased it due to the current under-financed situation and many people are ‘rich’ • Good corporate governance and accountability are needed to convince people that appropriate budget is necessary to deliver quality education.
Promises • The new law on educational legal entity which assures HEIs autonomy and accountability should be enacted early 2008; • The transitional period for the current 7 autonomous HEIs provides lesson-learned both for the government ( in preparing the law) and for the HEIs ( in mind-set change and capacity building and preparation of structural change)
Conclusions • The reform toward autonomous HEIs is necessary to enable their competitiveness, and there is no point of return; • The reform process will be painful especially in the political environment in which Indonesia is experiencing reform in many aspects and sectors; • Political will and commitment is necessary by all stakeholders for the success of the reform.