Opening Up Higher Education Isolationism
Not a single Indonesian university has penetrated the top 500 in the 2019 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Furthermore, the University of Indonesia and the Bandung Institute of Technology are the only institutions with quality research to be included in the top 1,000.
Why has this happened? This data does not necessarily mean that the quality of research at higher education institutions in Indonesia is declining, as the volume of internationally published papers has been increasing. However, the rate at which the quality of higher education research has been improving in other countries is much faster, so that China, for example, has 70 universities ranked among the world\'s best 1,000 universities, followed by India (33 universities), Malaysia (10 universities) and Thailand (5 universities).
This fact indicates the risks for Indonesia, which badly needs a supportive climate and exemplary human resources (talent) following the development of capital, markets and entrepreneurship. This holds particularly true in terms of developing a knowledge-based economy and Industry 4.0, which holds technical expertise, innovation and new knowledge sources in high regard. The mismatch between higher education qualifications and the skills in demand, as well as the extensive skills gap, is an obstacle to economic growth. A successful country is a country that can produce brilliant minds and discover new knowledge.
Openness and competition
Then, what are other countries doing to successfully improve research quality and to foster a knowledge-based economy? Various references from different sources in the world conclude that the success of higher education in making high achievements is determined by a will to be externally and competitively oriented.
The World Bank’s 2011 comparative report, "The road to academic excellence: the making of world-class research universities", also concluded that successful countries are based on open knowledge and competition, assimilate the knowledge they possess into economic development and build comparative advantages in sectors that have high growth potential with the support of talent and other available resources.
In practical terms, this means that first, there is a need to improve the expertise of researchers and professors. Researchers must compete in a knowledge sector that employs an independent peer-review system, and compare the knowledge they posses with their best peers in the world. Competition is critical in the context of allocating research grants, placing lecturers and accepting doctoral students.
Second, access to knowledge must be open. A diverse knowledge sector is a healthy knowledge sector. Research must be explorative, flexible and innovative, and must be supported by access to relevant knowledge. Research cannot be carried out without access to comparative studies. Wikipedia is indeed an interesting resource, but it is not a source of scientifically proven knowledge.
Third, the key to success for world-class universities in the Asia-Pacific is to openly recruit qualified researchers from other countries, primarily doctoral students, and pay them at competitive rates to conduct research and publish their results in the best journals in the world (World Bank, 2011). Research cannot develop in a closed community. Studies must be discussed with researchers of different disciplines (multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary) from other countries.
Fourth, no country that exercises centralized control over research has succeeded in developing a knowledge-based economy. Professors and researchers need flexibility and autonomy, because a study can risk failure if it is managed under a centralized, bureaucratic structure. Experience at the world\'s best universities shows that developing new knowledge cannot be done at the government’s call. Research must be done through competition (OECD, 2003). Today, research is even done collaboratively by all stakeholders in the higher education sector, the government and industry (commercial, social, and cultural).
The line that connects these four factors is openness and competition. How is this currently applied in Indonesia? It turns out that foreign universities have not been allowed to operate in Indonesia until now. The same holds true for professors and researchers, including foreign doctoral students, who can only gain a position in Indonesia as a guest lecturer/researcher or contractual lecturers.
Weakness of the Indonesian system
The draft law on the national system for science and technology, which is currently being deliberated, includes articles that can criminalize foreign researchers that do not have the appropriate permission. This strict approach will further complicate Indonesia\'s position on opening up to develop new knowledge.
Basically, Indonesia has a closed and limited research ecosystem, with researchers publishing their research results for local readers without undergoing peer review. This can be seen from the tendency among researchers to publish their unedited work through conferences. Furthermore, new lecturers are appointed through a closed internal process (Rakhmani and Siregar, 2016).
There are political and economic reasons behind this, as Andrew Rosser wrote on the reluctance to change higher education regulations and open the sector towards competition, as this would cause opportunities to obtain funding/financial profit to dry up (Comparative Education, 2017). This is because Indonesian universities will be exposed to the risk of losing at international competitions.
At present, instead of focusing on improving the quality of its higher education institutions, Indonesia is even contributing to universities in other countries while contributing to increasing productivity in other countries. Every year, the government funds more than 18,000 Indonesian students to study abroad. Only a handful of scholarship recipients have repatriated to contribute to developing a knowledge-based economy through their research. The top postgraduates even remain abroad and find jobs to join the community of diaspora scholars. This is not good investment, of course.
Indonesia cannot forever support its students to attend foreign universities. It would be better to open the higher education sector to competition and pursue international standards. We must start with acknowledging that a closed higher education ecosystem has nothing to do with nationalism. Instead, it is an obstacle to economic growth and social development.
This does not mean that Indonesia will follow the neoliberal path and allow the market to take full control of higher education, as the opponents of Law No. 9/2009 on legal educational institutions (BHP Law) have imagined. Commercializing education is also not the way China, India, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore have followed in transforming their higher education.
What are needed in Indonesia are a mentoring system, knowledge transfer and policies for researchers and universities. Adequate incentives and resources must be provided to encourage Indonesian professors to improve their research skills through the transfer of knowledge and affirmation policies.
To prevent higher education from being commercialized, experts agree that clear regulation is needed for foreign universities opening local branches. Seeking profit must not be their aim, but to support innovation, develop the knowledge sector and promote international collaboration. Policies are thus necessary to support regional higher education institutions in contributing to regional economies, because not all universities need to be transformed into world-class research universities.
This follows President Joko Widodo\'s statement that educational institutions must be relevant and contribute to the community in which it is based (Tempo.co, 2/16/2018). The most important thing is for Indonesia’s higher education and research ecosystems to be open and engage in competition. Universities must be given greater autonomy, including obtaining funding from different sources and making administrative adjustments. To follow in the footsteps of China, India, Singapore and Malaysia, Indonesia must be able to attract the best students and professors to study and work in Indonesia. In that context, we should appreciate the plan to formulate a new policy on income and remuneration for academics of the Indonesian diaspora who want to come home, as Ali Gufron, the director general of science and technology and higher education resources stated (Republika.co.id, 3/21/2018). The same can be said for the Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister’s idea to allow foreign universities to operate in Indonesia, even though only a few have done so thus far.
The most urgent need today is a series of reforms, in both supply and demand of the knowledge sector, as Yanuar Nugroho explained (Kompas, 2/20/2019). This includes a competitive research fund that is granted through a selection system that employs experts on an independent scientific research council, which would give greater weight to academic quality than bureaucratic considerations. The government must also relax its centralized control of the research sector and encourage autonomy, innovation and collaboration, including international cooperation.
The road to world-class universities is not paved with the increased volume of internationally published papers, as the government is pushing at present. The essence of the problem is fundamental and goes deeper, and concerns the prevailing mindset, regulations and institutional approaches. Only an approach towards an open, competitive and collaborative ecosystem will Indonesia’s knowledge sector be able to overcome its backwardness and transform the Indonesian economy into a knowledge-based economy.
Chairil Abdini, Secretary-General, Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI)