Some academic violations, akin to opening up a commercial stall, are not a general reflection of postgraduate education in Indonesia. The cases at Jakarta State University and Manado State University are just two cases that have been exposed to the public. The motivation and practice is similar to the behavior of corruption. It is unfortunate that the embarrassing behavior, which has been exposed to the public, involves two educational institutions that, because of their status, require urgent attention.
The cases of the two universities, as well as other higher education institutions, shine a light on the problem. It sanctions those proven guilty and forces them to be legally responsible for their behavior.
At the same time, there is an improvement in the management of master’s programs (S-2) and doctorate programs (S-3) offered by universities. Having lecturers with master’s and doctoral degrees that are legal is an ideal requirement of higher education institutions, and so is having a professor among the teaching staff. The accreditation actively carried out by the Research and Technology and Higher Education Ministry set the requirements for a number of university software and study programs.
Having an ideal ratio of teaching staff with postgraduate degrees to students will be an additional point in the accreditation process. It makes sense that in order to get the B or A status, universities hire as lecturers people with S-2, S3 and professor qualifications, or train up lecturers “in-house.”
Apart from in-house training, they also carry out long-distance college programs in which the universities cooperate with other universities overseas. State universities in Java offer similar programs for universities outside of Java, including instant programs that are merely ways of getting potential lecturers with master’s and doctoral degrees. There are legal regulations to ensure that these programs go as they should. However, the pragmatic appetite toward monetization is more dominant.
This condition makes offering postgraduate courses no different than opening a stall to sell goods. Master’s and doctoral degrees are the commodities, the universities the seller and program’s participants – whether they realize it or not – are the customers. To serve the needs of the customers quickly, for the sake of money and status, some institutions have broken the rules by reducing college hours and committing maladministration and plagiarism.
If this continues to go on, the “opening of stalls” will grow to become a pestilence. Educational institutions, which are supposed to be disassociated from acts of cheating, are immersed in a condition of permissiveness and pragmatism. This will affect the quality of the next generation. We support a resolution to the academic violation cases. We must make them a catalyst for a thorough review of the practice of postgraduate education in the country. The public will be monitoring it.