As part of our ongoing contract with AusAID on the Indonesian Higher Education Sector, Strategic Asia is hosting this seminar to address the issue of social equity as it relates to the provision of tertiary education. The seminar aims to discuss ways to increase the opportunities for stakeholders to comment on tertiary education policy and to help the Indonesian Government with a better understanding of what their next steps should be on equity in higher education, while furthering good relations between Australia and Indonesia.

Equity as a component of higher education policy is often considered critical for the social and economic progress of a country. The equity theme is of partiuclar importance today as, during the past two decades, the link between higher education and personal and social economic development has become more evident, intensifying the need to ensure that larger numbers of citizens are able to access tertiary education. At the policy level, this notion has progressively led to a series of interventions aiming to bridge equality of opportunities and access to higher education policy. In practice this has proven to be easier said than done, given the complexity of equity itself, a synonym of social fairness, social inclusion and re-distributive justice; principles that are not entirely ‘equitable’ in society.

With the gross enrolment ratio in Indonesia at just more than 20% of the eligible age cohort, many today still find themselves excluded from tertiary education. The increasing cost of the service is one of the reasons for this exclusion, while other reasons include lack of infrastructure to reach out to people from the outer provinces, low parental support, lack of appropriate student support mechanisms, as well as lack of a clear policy direction. Given all these challenges, bridging equity with higher education policy is likely to remain one of the most critical themes in the higher education agenda for countries around the world for several years to come.

As Indonesia makes significant strides in the realm of primary and secondary education, there is an increasingly urgent need to raise the quality of and access to higher education. The importance of Indonesia’s tertiary education sector in meeting the development challenges of the future cannot be overemphasized.

These challenges consist of creating a vibrant service sector, raising the competitiveness and efficiency of the Indonesian labour force, and addressing the institutional needs of Indonesian policy makers as they struggle to explore policy choices, track develop outcomes, and conclude international institutional partnerships and to prepare Indonesia for the technological challenges of the coming decades.The Ministry of National Education has decided to establish a working group on higher education strategy. This is aimed at formulating an effective strategy for Indonesia’s higher education sector, exploring synergies and partnership with global leaders, and integrating the lessons of international and Indonesian experience into local institutional practice.  Initially, this will take the form of a public-private partnership between the Directorate General for Higher Education and Strategic Asia Indonesia

Indonesia is in its tenth year of political, administrative and economic decentralisation. This is one of the most ambitious decentralisation programs anywhere in the developing world and perhaps one of the most comprehensive in history.

As Indonesia tries to iron out existing problems in the implementation of its decentralisation roadmap, now is the time for the country to anticipate second-generation problems which are likely to influence the future trajectory of many of its key provinces, districts and trade routes. Learning from the piecemeal approach of the first round, forward thinking and anticipation of, rather than reacting and gap filling for, the new challenges from globalisation will be necessary. These challenges include shifts in global economic distribution and local power hubs and the changing economic geography of future development across countries, regions and large urban centres. Any second round thinking on decentralisation must be more strategic, organised and sustained, and is likely to be key to a considered policy response across this new range of challenges, situations and unforeseen crises.

In this context Strategic Asia is setting up a Second-Generation Decentralisation policy strategy group. Broadly, its aim is to complement existing government approaches and initiatives regarding decentralisation with a view to bring about forward looking decentralisation policy development.