Indonesia’s tertiary education institutions have long performed poorly in global university rankings. Among the various deficits that are routinely recorded are low teaching and research quality, inadequate levels of knowledge transfer and a lack of an international outlook. The Indonesian government has repeatedly expressed concern about the dismal results in the rankings, but despite a number of initiatives to transform the country’s leading universities into world class institutions, the higher education sector remains riddled with problems. Why do Indonesian universities struggle to deliver better academic programs? What reforms have been attempted and why have they failed? Who are the actors and organisations involved in the politics of higher education in Indonesia?
In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these issues with Andrew Rosser, Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute.
In 2017, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University, Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app.
Photo by Mohamad Sani on Flickr.