Higher Education in Indonesia: The Political Economy of Institution-Level Governance

ABSTRACT

The poor quality of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Indonesia is due in part to failures of governance at the institution level. Drawing on an analysis of conflict and contestation in three Indonesian HEIs, this article argues that these failures reflect the dominance of predatory officials and business groups in institutional governance and the relative marginalisation of elements who support improved research, teaching and community service in line with either neo-liberal or idealist conceptions of quality. It also argues that some degree of change in governance has been possible when reformist elements have gained control of a HEI and driven change from the top down or such elements have challenged predatory HEI management by leveraging support from external actors with influence. Instances of such change hold out hope for improved governance at Indonesian HEIs in the future. But they also indicate that even if the dominance of predatory elements within HEIs can be overcome, further struggle will be required to define the precise nature of governance reform given competing reformist agendas with markedly different implications for how academic quality and integrity are understood, measured and implemented.

KEY WORDS:

• Higher education
• Indonesia
• political economy
• universities
• governance

Acknowledgments

I have benefited enormously from conversations with Phil King as well as advice he has provided on various points in this paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Figures are from the World Development Indicators database (see https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators).

2. These figures relate only to HEIs then under the jurisdiction of the Ministry for Research, Technology and Higher Education. They do not include those under other Ministries.

3. The name of this ministry has changed over time. It is referred to here as the Ministry for Education and Culture for the sake of simplicity.

4. At the time of writing (November 2021), Gumilar had not been formally accused of or put on trial for corruption, although he had appeared as a witness in the corruption trial of a former Vice-Rector. The former Vice-Rector was found guilty of corruption (Detik, July 22, 2019).

5. See Rosser (2019, 92–94) for a more detailed analysis of this case.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this paper was provided by the Australian Research Council through Grant No. FT 110100078.