Challenges for the Merdeka Belajar
Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim established the Four Principles of the Merdeka Belajar (Freedom to Learn) Education Policy (11/12/2019).
The four principles include the National Standard School Examination, National Examination (UN), Learning Implementation Plan, and Regulations for Admission of New Zoning Students. Specifically for higher education, on Jan. 24, the education minister launched the Merdeka Campus (Independent Campus) policy, which was stipulated in five ministerial regulations.
Translating Education and Culture Ministerial Regulation No. 3 of 2020 concerning National Standards for Higher Education becomes an interesting topic to find steps for its implementation. Higher education institutions (PT) are required to give rights for students to voluntarily take or not take semester credit units (SKS) outside their campus for as many as two semesters or equivalent to 40 SKS. Students can also take SKS in other study programs on campus. The Kampus Merdeka policy provides the widest possible space for universities to optimize the potential and characteristics of academic excellence to be accessible to students across higher education institutions. Therefore innovation, creative breakthroughs, and strengthening of the strategic field of science will be the capital to implement the Merdeka Belajar and Merdeka Campus.
Education at higher education is designed to improve the qualifications and expertise of human resources to keep up with the rapid development of the industry, which is described as the need to do frog leap and even giant leap. Higher education can play the role as an arena for early learning to work to facilitate the emerging skills, emerging jobs, to the emerging problem solving. Therefore, the orientation of higher education requires fundamental changes, especially a flexible curriculum for students. The curriculum is designed to provide education that is capable of triggering students to grow quickly and precisely. The curriculum must provide space for students to choose and develop their potential and competencies through the various "menus" being presented.
The fourth generation industrial revolution (4.0) has the characteristic of utilizing smart technology as a basis for industrial development (smartization). The integration between cyber-physical system and the internet of things has resulted in the integration of connections among humans, goods, and machines to produce goods and services that are personal. The emergence of this new ecosystem has led to the transformation of the concept of homes, schools, factories and large industries, that have previously stood individually into the concept of being interconnected with one another by the internet and into a unified integrated system. This revolution has changed the demands for the development of education to adjust to the industrial revolution, so that there appears Education 4.0.
Education 4.0 is an education system that is able to connect humans, goods, and machines to produce new models of personalized learning. The emergence of the new ecosystem in education has led to changes in educational strategies in universities that must be able to provide ecosystem and learning models that are more open, dynamic, interconnected across fields, and provide the widest possible space for students to express, be creative, and work in synergy to find innovation and new knowledge.
Curriculum relaxation
The Merdeka Belajar and Kampus Merdeka policies can be translated as encouragement to relax the curriculum to provide space for students to gain additional knowledge, skills and competencies, outside the main competencies that have been designed in the curriculum of the study program. This opportunity can be facilitated by providing a choice of interdisciplinary subjects and exposure to global competencies as a form of Merdeka Belajar. Interdisciplinary subjects are developed through two channels, namely existing subjects in the curriculum of study programs that are developed with materials containing cross-disciplinary knowledge; and encouraging the emergence of a variety of new subjects designed by a collaboration of lecturers across study programs, across departments, across faculties, up to across tertiary institutions.
Students can "shop" interdisciplinary subjects according to their interests and needs for competence development. The process of "competency shopping" through these interdisciplinary subjects must be based on the results of discussions and consultations between students and academic supervising lecturers (DPA). Therefore, the role of DPA in this assistance process is very important and strategic.
The Education and Culture Minister\'s policy can also be implemented by pushing the curriculum to provide space for up to a maximum of 40 percent for students to obtain a content of knowledge, skills and competencies related to: community service; data literacy, technology literacy, entrepreneurial literacy, humanitarian literacy, health literacy; interdisciplinary knowledge; global competencies, critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills; soft skills; scientific collaboration related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS); and sustainable development goals (SDGs). The content can be integrated in compulsory subjects and/or optional subjects, and/or curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities.
Interdisciplinary content presented as a subject can be carried out across study programs, across faculties/schools, across clusters, and across universities within or outside the country, whose implementation involves alumni, practitioners, and/or professionals as guest lecturers. The mechanism for conducting interdisciplinary subjects has the potential to provide students the opportunity to realize a personal based learning model.
At present, various universities have a learning management system (LMS) to support online learning processes. The LMS being developed is supporting the inter-university integration process, including the one that is developed by the Education and Culture Ministry through SPADA and the ICE Institute. Even, several large universities have developed LMS that are designed to support learning through massive open online courses (MOOCs). The development of LMS has several benefits, including expanding access to learning content, ensuring and equalizing the quality of content, increasing the performance of universities, increasing opportunities for cooperation among universities, overcoming limitations of human resources, facilities and technology in partner universities, developing the processes of credit transfer and subject transfer , media dissemination of knowledge to the wider community. For students, participating in online learning will be beneficial to expand access to better education, build networks among students, increase self-confidence, and expand digital experiences and digital horizons.
Management of the academic condition in learning must always follow current needs as an effort to increase engagement with post-millennial students. Implementation of learning method that combines face-to-face in class with face-to-face online or blended learning can be an alternative method of contemporary learning. The various online interactive learning applications available can be interesting choices in implementing blended learning. Online learning can be one of the strategies to address the need for access to cheap and quality education, contribute to the distribution of quality education, and provide opportunities for long life learning.
Practical work and apprenticeship
The emergence of the need for global competencies and special skills that are always changing also requires the university curriculum to be dynamic and adaptive. Global competency materials have objectives to inspire and facilitate the process of gaining experience in order to have skills and competencies: critical and creative thinking; adaptive in diversity; collaborative; communicating verbally and in writing; mastery of information, media and technology literacy; project themselves in the chosen scientific/professional field; make strategic decisions; fostering ethical leadership and attitudes; and critical thinking and problem solving that have a social entrepreneurial spirit.
Universities can encourage the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies through practical work and apprenticeship with a weight of 4-20 SKS held 1-6 months by involving alumni, practitioners, and professionals as co-lecturers. In order to improve the accuracy of competency achievement, the syllabus of program implementation must be prepared jointly between the department/faculty/school parties and industry/business/professional parties. Through practical work, students get additional benefits, such as strengthening science and skills, work experience, cross-disciplinary teamwork, communication skills, adaptation and interaction, implementation of knowledge, ability to place themselves in professionalism, and opportunities to get jobs appropriately.
Through a structured internship program, students are expected to face challenges to compete, maintain and reach strategic positions in an organization or institution, and apply knowledge and professionalism in their fields in the work environment. Several apprenticeship schemes that can be developed include apprenticeships to increase expertise; an internship to be involved in research; internship to support the completion of the thesis/final project; internship in domestic and foreign companies/institutions, up to the multiple internship model that combines several internship models in a period of time.
Many universities have implemented community learning programs which are packaged in the Community Service Program (KKN). The Community Service Program is designed and directed to increase student empathy and care, implement science and technology in teamwork and interdisciplinary, instill personality values (nationalism, Pancasila spirit, persistence, work ethic and responsibility, independence, leadership and entrepreneurship), enhance national competitiveness, instill the spirit of researchers (exploratory and analytical, encouraging learning communities and learning societies).
KKN students and the community are expected to be able to identify problems in the community and find solutions by utilizing and empowering the resources they have (science and technology, human resources, natural resources). It is expected that the community will be able to be self-sufficient, self-managed and autonomous in development and furthermore have independence in meeting the needs of life or building communities in a sustainable manner. The KKN is also important to be designed to encourage the growth and development of cooperation of various related parties so that it can be realized in solving problems that are comprehensive and efficient through an interdisciplinary integrative approach.
Through KKN, integration of various aspects can be built, including the economic, social, cultural and ecological (environment) aspects, and designed in a structured manner so that it has a strategic meaning for the realization of sustainable development. Therefore, KKN will facilitate the discovery/development of new knowledge and technology, be a tangible manifestation of education for sustainable development for the academic community and society, and at the same time be a dedication of universities and other work partners to the community. Opportunities and challenges of Merdeka Belajar and Kampus Merdeka are important to be responded to as an opportunity to develop innovation and creativity in the management of the higher education.
Panut Mulyono, Rector of Gadjah Mada University