University Education in Indonesia

University education in Indonesia is like most other places not free, it is a privilege and not a right! This means that a university education might be your ticket to a better job and perhaps a larger salary but it is going to cost you. Simply, if you or your parents can afford it then a university education is a reality. If you or your parents are not quite so well to do then a university education might only become a reality if you are able to secure a scholarship that takes care of your admission and tuition fees.

This is no different to Australia. University education used to be a lot cheaper and this was because the government was throwing money into the higher education sector. However, economic rationalization meant that the government decided the best means of recouping some of this money was to institute a system where the user pays. In this case the user pays through the tax system. Simply, the government covers the cost of the education and the recipient of that education then pays back the money to the government through the tax system. The amount owed is indexed to inflation. I am still paying my university education debts off!

The Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) makes university education possible for many but it ensures that many people remain in debt for long periods of time after they graduate.

Perhaps in the aftermath of the Constitutional Court decision that held that the government must contribute 20% of the State Budget to the education sector that some additional money can be thrown at the higher education sector. However, there are simply more pressing concerns at primary and high school level in terms of funding education.

If the government does not put any money into higher education then State-funded universities will have to rely on increasing commercialization to make ends meet. This will be at the expense of students and their education. In contrast, the commercial interests of private universities is far less complicated as from inception these institutions have been all about making money off their students and research activities. The Campus Asia review of higher education in Indonesia makes this point clear when it ranks Universitas Pelita Harapan as the number two university in Indonesia.

Personally, education to the undergraduate level must be free.

Hot-Housing Children

The term hot-housing children sounds like a practice destined to confine children into a life of prostitution. Yet, the term is not quite so sinister as that, at least in theory anyway!

Hot-housing children is the practice of isolating gifted kids with a view to expediting academic success at an early age. Most of us have no doubt read stories of kids deemed to be geniuses and admitted to some of the most prestigious institutes of learning in the world. The simple idea being that if you start them early then they will be productive early.

The case of Sufiah Yusof highlights just how badly this can go wrong. Sufiah was a child prodigy that seemingly had it all before her. Recognized for her academic and intellectual talents as a youngster and admitted to Oxford at just 13 years of age (picture borrowed from The Sydney Morning Herald).

The biggest problem I see, and I am no expert, is that if you are entering university at 10, 12, or 15 years old you are missing out the most fun years of primary and high school! So, you grow up to be a genius adult that has never had the nurturing fun years of childhood. Not being a psychologist seems irrelevant here because this kind of loss of childhood appears to be a recipe for disaster to me.

But back to the story the young genius Sufiah is now a 23 year old prostitute turning tricks for 130 quid an hour somewhere in Manchester (United Kingdom)! Maybe this is her choice and maybe it isn't but whatever the case it is still sad! It is a sad indictment of our community as a whole that we let a kid with so much potential be so poorly cared for and managed that she falls through the net and into a situation that has all the signs of turning into a case of "what could have been"...

Perhaps the answer is not universities for these child geniuses but perhaps some other specialized facility of advanced learning where their respective talents and interests can be developed amongst geniuses of the same age rather than in the broader university scene...maybe we need a genius to work this one out for us too!

UPH and the University Ranking System

The simple question that a recent ranking of Indonesia's universities in a recent issue of Globe Asia Magazine raises is Universitas Pelita Harapan (Pelita Harapan University / UPH) really the second best public or private university in Indonesia?

This is a more interesting question when one considers that the Globe Asia Magazine is part of the once again burgeoning Lippo Group which is the conglomerate established by the Riady family (perhaps in another post I will write on the Clinton / Arkansas connections) and which also just happens to be the family responsible for the establishment and development of UPH.

There is an obvious potential conflict of interest here and the cynics among us might even write the rankings off as a brazen marketing ploy to attract more high fee-paying students to the campus with the illusion of greatness.

To be fair to UPH, it will eventually become one of Indonesia's premier universities, if not the premier university in Indonesia, particularly if the Riady family continue to invest heavily in it. I have had the good fortune of going and checking out their facilities, particularly the Faculty of Law. The library is already an imposing entity and one that many of Indonesia's more established universities should be envious of, facilities wise.

However, a university when it is all said and done is as much about the academic staff that work there and the quality of the research that they produce. The rankings gave a much-reduced weighting to these key indicators than it did to facilities. For example facilities were weighted at 16% with staff and research weighted at a mere 9% and 7%. On these fronts a number of other Indonesian universities would surely rank higher than UPH at this stage of UPH's development.

The fact that UPH out-ranked some of Indonesia's more established and highly regarded universities such as Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Atma Jaya, and Universitas Parahyangan (Unpar) was surprising. Perhaps what was most surprising was that the ranking is probably a little premature and unwarranted at this point in time.

Education is a business and good reviews are important to attracting the best and brightest. In simple economic terms this was an exercise in self-promotion. Some will be critical of the method employed by the Lippo Group to promote UPH. However, as a promotional tool is has worked, because people are talking about university education in Indonesia in general and specific terms. And, this is a good thing!

But never underestimate the consumer and when you have to pay big money for a university education you become a much more cost-conscious consumer. A good review is not the be all to end all of a decision, give consumers of higher education the benefit of doubt here that they are a little more discerning than reading a good review as being reason enough to throw their hard-earned cash at UPH for an education.