Freedom Campus

As I begin to write this article, I admit that I am among the people who are surprised by and excited about the appointment of Nadiem Makarim, a young man (at least younger than me), as the Education and Culture Minister of the Republic of Indonesia. The position used to be considered sacred, belonging to former rectors or at least lecturers.

A few months after his appointment, the uproar came just after Mas Minister (a term that makes me uncomfortable, but most people call him that now) conveyed his main ideas about the “freedom campus”. The Minister\'s four main ideas entered into discourse, ranging from serious discussions to jokes about the style of the Whatsapp group.

The ideas included policies on opening a new study program, a university accreditation system, a policy for a state university to become state legal entity (PTNBH) university, as well as the right to study three semesters outside the study program.

This paper tries to explore the four ideas of Mas Minister but certainly does not represent the overall ideas that need to be carried out to make the campuses in Indonesia more aligned with other advanced campuses in the world.

Mas Minister was testing the waters – throwing ideas out in the hope that people would comment without being asked. He succeeded! He was successful in creating discussions on public channels, especially in making educators get noisy. At least the success also made me join in by writing. This paper tries to explore the four ideas of Mas Minister but certainly does not represent the overall ideas that need to be carried out to make the campuses in Indonesia more aligned with other advanced campuses in the world.

Freedom being expected

Let\'s start with the first question of Mas Minister’s main ideas. Are only four ideas needed by the campus? Is there something more substantial that needs to be liberated so that the campus makes more contributions to this nation?

If we want the freedom cluster that is expected by the campus (I define it as autonomy), there are at least four major groups needed by the campus: academic autonomy and quality guarantees, institutional and human resources (HR) autonomy, financial autonomy, and autonomy in thinking about and conveying ideas.

Academic autonomy is not merely meant as freedom in opening study programs. This must be interpreted that the campus must provide the widest possible access for the community to be able to obtain higher education of high quality. The campus must be given freedom in designing academic cooperation, both with institutions at home and abroad, by making quality and a quality-guarantee system a selling point.

What has often been forgotten is that it is actually the academic community that best understands what excellence in the education, research and innovation sphere looks like and what must be developed on campus, taking into consideration the potential of the university’s resources and environment. Furthermore, academic degrees and the nomenclature of study programs, which have created a lot of problems, should be the university’s domain to be proposed to the government (bottom-up).

KOMPAS/FAJAR RAMADHAN

Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim when launching the "Freedom Campus" policy in Jakarta, Friday (1/24/2020).

The curriculum arrangement in a short period of study must be made autonomous to ensure that the design of learning outcomes can be fulfilled by the graduates. Licensing to engage in collaborative academic programs and research with foreign institutions and researchers is still considered burdensome to the campus, even though at the same time the campus has been asked to strengthen its network and produce world-class research outcomes.

As the saying goes, work with great people so that you have more opportunities to become great people.

The election of university leaders still involves a 35 percent ministerial vote. This 35 percent vote by the minister often creates campus politicization.

In the context of institutional autonomy and human resource development, government intervention in determining the organizational structure on campus is still very heavy handed and often does not complement the flexibility of the organization, which is expected to be a driver of academic productivity, research and innovation. The election of university leaders still involves a 35 percent ministerial vote. This 35 percent vote by the minister often creates campus politicization.

I myself would prefer the minister to have 100 percent voting rights in deciding by considering the aspirations of the academic community in the previous election stage. Beyond that, the rank promotion system should not be made generic. In certain fields and study programs, performance measures such as lecturers and research are not suitable for measurement with generic criteria set by the government. Design and art lecturers don\'t really need scientific publications. Their performance can be measured in the form of prototypes or the creation of artwork.

At the same time, the campus is being asked to increase the productivity of postgraduates, while the rules for establishing postgraduate courses related to the home base

are difficult. For consideration of efficiency and academic productivity, a lecturer should have more than one home base, as long as he has time to fulfill his obligation for Tridharma (the three pillars of higher education comprising education, research and community service) at his home bases.

In considering the ability of the government to fund the campus in order to provide high-quality education, the government should provide freedom to the third cluster, namely campus autonomy in managing and utilizing all its potential to bring in revenue with an output- and outcome-based accountability system.

Some autonomous campuses (PTNBH) must be given the freedom to utilize assets (initial wealth) in the form of cooperation with partners, including running business units that are in accordance with the potential of the campus. Efforts to drive endowment funds, which at the end can be utilized to improve academic quality and services, need to always be supported. At the same time, PTNBH can be given additional responsibility to assist the government in fostering other tertiary institutions through resource-sharing schemes with financial support from the government.

Finally, the government needs to strengthen campus independence by giving more freedom to academics to express their opinions in accordance with their expertise and to express their opinions according to the academic truths they believe.

Should regulations be issued to ensure campus compliance with its main tasks and functions? The answer is clear, the campus doesn\'t need more rules.

The next question is who guarantees that the campus will carry out its functions if too much freedom is given? Should regulations be issued to ensure campus compliance with its main tasks and functions? The answer is clear, the campus doesn\'t need more rules.

Shift of the role of government

The government has a more important role in establishing the values for the four freedoms outlined earlier. Excellent, creative and innovative, open, affirmative, lifelong learning and accessibility create values and enthusiasm that will direct academic freedom and guarantee quality. The campus must mature to translate these values into governance and life on campus. Autonomy, efficiency and strong leadership are signs of freedom in institutional and resource management.

A campus, which is a group of adults, must also be treated like an institution of adults – without too much regulation in determining institutional arrangements and the governance of resources. Independent financial management must still maintain the principles of accountability, synergy and financial sustainability.

A supervision system needs to be developed to ensure that the campus, especially university leadership, is not trapped in legal issues related to financial management. Integrity and ethics are values that form the foundation of freedom of opinion and expression in the campus community. And the campus can independently solve problems that arise through a code of ethics established by the leadership of the university.

Then what is the role of the government through the Education and Culture Ministry? In the context of campus freedom, the role of government must shift slightly. The government must increasingly have the heart to focus more on setting outlines of campus institutions, using the supervision approach rather than auditing, establishing performance indicators that are more output- and outcome-oriented, setting quality outlines and the direction of the development of education, research and innovation programs, providing funds in a proportional and objective block grant and, of course, willingly providing greater space in ensuring academic freedom in thinking and expressing opinions.

I do not believe that the quality of universities in Indonesia is getting worse. They simply require acceleration and more strategic and innovative efforts to overcome our backwardness compared to the quality of leading higher education in other countries. Fresh ideas need to be brought by Mas Minister to increase the acceleration of progress without breaking away from cultural roots. And Mas Minister\'s efforts to test the waters have been successful in exploring ideas. Several parties have begun to wake up and contribute to the acceleration. Good luck, Mas!

Ketut Buda Artana, Professor at ITS Surabaya