Recognition Challenges in Implementing the Independent Campus Policy: The Case of Indonesia

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation of the Minister of Education and Culture's Independent Campus policy issued in 2019 (see: regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, No. 4, 5, 6, 7/2020). One of the policies is the provision of two (two) semesters of study away from campus with eight (eight) optional programs: student exchange, internships, school-based teaching assistance, research, humanitarian projects, entrepreneurship, independent projects, and thematic real-world lectures (building villages). Three organizers were purposefully chosen to assess the readiness of higher education institutions: tertiary institutions "L," "M," and "N." Data was collected using a focus group discussion (FGD) approach via online interviews supplemented by relevant documentation. The findings indicated that the three tertiary institutions were proactive and worked hard to implement policies. However, there were still several challenges to overcome among the difficulties in recognizing the outcomes of the activities. Universities face a variety of quality and geographic conditions, as well as situations that differ from one another. No criteria can be used as a guideline for determining the recognition and quality assurance of activity results. The government is advised to establish a work unit in charge of developing standard process criteria for each selected program to achieve the goals of competency development, competitiveness, and graduate readiness to enter the workforce. Keywords: independent campus, student study rights, elective programs, recognition DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-35-06 Publication date: December 31st 202

Strengthening the Students Nationalism in Border Areas

This study aims to determine the condition of student nationalism in the border area, as well as the role of a number of parties that influence its formation. The results are suggested to draw conclusions on how to increase student nationalism. We find that the nationalism conditions of students in the border area resulted in a moderate performance, and susceptible to be influenced by various stimuli, both from within the country and neighboring countries. The evidence presented in this analysis points to the fact that these stimuli often weaken nationalist awareness and attitude, both related to ideology, constitution, unity, diversity and sovereignty of the nation and state. The results suggest that further action required to increase student nationalism in a short, medium- and long-term efforts as to prevent external influences, especially crimes in the border areas. The role of several parties need to be improved, namely families, schools and youth organizations in the vicinity as well as government support in the form of funding, activity facilities, instructors, training, and others. Especially the role of schools, it is necessary to involve active students in the implementation of strengthening nationalism through a problem-solving approach

Measuring Diversity in Higher Education Institutions: A Review of Literature and Empirical Approaches

This paper reviews studies on diversity in higher education institutions and suggests empirical approaches to measure diversity. “Diversity” in this paper refers to the internal and external differences among academic programs and institutions. As the empirical literature is relatively salient about how to measure diversity in higher education, the study suggests and compares the use of the Herfindhal index, Gini coefficient, Theil entropy index and the Birnbaum (1983) measure. Applying the indices to data on Dutch higher education, the results indicate limited diversity between institutions, disciplines, and bachelor’s programs. The diversity at the master’s program and first year bachelor’s program levels increased between 2008 and 2013

The attractiveness of programmes in higher education:an empirical approach

Higher education institutions have experienced an increase instudent enrolment over the past decades. At the same time,universities increasingly attempt to attract students by offering avariety of study programmes. Using a Dutch panel data set of1300 programmes in 50 institutions, this study investigates whatexplains the attractiveness of study programmes. We hypothesizethat the distance of study programmes plays a major role instudent decisions to attend. Based on an instrumental variablesidentification strategy, we demonstrate that the closest distancebetween similar programmes offered and competition betweenprogrammes have significant effects on the enrolment of studentsin higher education. The results indicate that a one-kilometerincrease in the closest distance between similar programmesdecreases the number of students to enrol in a programme by –seven students after controlling for programme type and othercharacteristics