Indonesia Expert: Prioritize Lecturer Quality Over New Universities

An Indonesian education expert has urged the government to focus on enhancing the quality and welfare of university lecturers before establishing new institutions. Pangesti Wiedarti, a lecturer at Yogyakarta State University, stated that Indonesia's primary challenge in higher education is not a shortage of universities but rather improving the human resources within them.

"We need to prioritize strengthening lecturer quality, improving welfare, expanding student access, and consolidating institutional quality before adding new institutions on a large scale," Pangesti said in a press statement in late July 2026. The government under President Prabowo Subianto had previously planned to establish ten Universitas Republik Indonesia (URI) campuses to prepare future civil servants, government officials, and state-owned enterprise employees.

Pangesti emphasized that higher education quality heavily relies on lecturer capacity. However, she noted that improving academic qualifications still faces obstacles, particularly inadequate welfare. She reminded that lecturers bear the responsibility of the Tridharma Perguruan Tinggi, encompassing education, research, and community service. Therefore, the state and universities cannot demand full fulfillment of these obligations if lecturers' welfare remains unaddressed.

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We need to prioritize strengthening lecturer quality, improving welfare, expanding student access, and consolidating institutional quality before adding new institutions on a large scale.

She also suggested developing a more flexible lecturer career system, proposing a model that separates career paths based on competence, similar to that at Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta. This model allows lecturers to focus on teaching, research, or community service, rather than burdening all with the same demands. Pangesti supports testing and evaluating this model in several universities before national implementation.

Furthermore, Pangesti linked higher education quality to improvements in primary and secondary education, as students' academic abilities entering university are influenced by their prior schooling. While acknowledging the good intention behind URI's goal to cultivate integrity-driven public leaders, she believes strengthening existing resources is more critical.

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I support that idea as a model that needs to be tested and evaluated. The government does not have to directly implement it nationally. The government can test it in several universities, then assess its impact on learning and research quality before formulating policies.