Depok, August 30th 2023. Smart City Universitas Indonesia (UI) is running a collaborative research program with the University of Notre Dame and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) regarding financial sustainability in higher education. This research was carried out for 2 years to study how universities operate and what strategies are used to ensure they remain sustainable. The research, which is part of the Higher Education Institutions Generating Holistic and Transformative Solutions (HEIGHTS) project and the Supporting Holistic Actionable Research in Education (SHARE) sub-project, is now in the third or final phase.
To disseminate the findings in phase three and validate them to relevant stakeholders, Smart City UI held a dissemination of research results, on Tuesday (22/8), at the Aloft TB Simatupang Hotel, South Jakarta. This activity was attended by 35 participants who were leaders and representatives from the universities that were the research samples.
Several universities that attended the event included the Sumatra Institute of Technology (ITERA), Hasanudin University (UNHAS), Ganesha University of Education (Undiksha), and Airlangga University (UNAIR). Also present were representatives from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek); National Planning and Development Agency; and the Ministry of Finance.
The Head of the Research Team who also serves as Smart City UI Advisor, Ahmad Gamal, S.Ars., M.Sc., MUP, Ph.D., said that this event was the final stage of several phases that had been passed. In phase one, a literature review and identification of key stakeholders was carried out for three months, from February to May 2022. Then, in phase two, a workshop using the system thinking method and actor mapping was held in August 2022. This workshop aimed to identify the root causes of problems in financial sustainability at university.
From all the phases that have been done, it was found that the sustainability of higher education has several main characteristics. These characteristics are good management, the quality of lecturers or human resources, as well as good governance and reputation. Ahmad Gamal said, “This forms a cycle. To have a good reputation, one must have good management. However, this can also happen the other way around. With a good reputation, the recruitment process for lecturers and university managers is better so that ultimately universities can have good management.”
Regarding this effort, the government has a role to play in supporting financial sustainability in higher education. Institutional Director of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Dr. Lukman, S.T., M.Hum., said that to help universities, the government has launched five policy directions. The five policies are increasing participation rates; improving quality and relevance; improving the quality of teaching staff; strengthening governance systems; as well as strengthening research, innovation and community service.
According to Dr. Lukman, these five policy directions can be achieved by increasing the status of State Universities (PTN) to become State Universities with Legal Entity (PTN-BH). “One strategy for PTN to be financially healthy is to encourage PTN to become PTN-BH and increase their accreditation in international eyes. That way, the competitiveness and collaboration of universities on an international scale can increase,” he said.
Smart City UI research results dissemination activities produce feedback regarding key findings obtained from key informant interviews, survey collection, and university financial report data. From these findings, the research team obtained lessons related to the strategies that universities should have to be sustainable and will formulate recommendations for stakeholders. The results of this discussion will also be further incorporated in the research report.
