“Only through quality education can Indonesia stand on its own two feet,” he stressed during the Plenary Session of the Academic Senate Council of Legal Entity State Universities at Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java, on Friday.
Fauzan noted that higher education must serve as the primary foundation for formulating strategic national development plans.
To this end, revitalizing the role of universities is deemed essential to enhance their quality, acceptability, and responsiveness to the dynamics in society.
According to him, strengthening the institutional framework and the management of the Tridharma (Three Pillars) of higher education must be the primary guide for running universities amidst both national and global challenges.
“There is no reason not to revitalize higher education. This revitalization requires a strong foundation, particularly empirical data that can serve as a reference for formulating policies and the direction of universities' development,” he remarked.
In his presentation, he outlined that Indonesia currently has 4,416 universities with 303,067 lecturers and 9,967,487 students.
The deputy minister assessed that Indonesia's higher education sector still faces three main challenges: quality, relevance, and access.
The national Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for higher education is currently around 32 percent, while in East Java, it is recorded at 31.8 percent.
Efforts to increase the GER have been carried out through scholarship schemes such as the Indonesia Smart College Card, central and local government scholarships, and philanthropic support.
He noted that these efforts need to be more strategically targeted toward groups that still lack access to higher education.
Furthermore, Fauzan emphasized the importance of universities adapting to the needs of Generation Z, who expect specific and practical skills, direct connections to industry, job security, and flexibility in the educational system.
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Translator: Willi Irawan, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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