Sutikno and Muhammad Sofwan Effendi taking oaths as witnesses for the president to testify at the judicial review hearing of Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers, Monday (1/10/2022) virtually. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.
Monday, January 10, 2022 | 15:22 WIB
JAKARTA, Public Relations—Another judicial review hearing of Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) virtually on Monday, January 10, 2022. At the hearing for petition No. 20/PUU-XIX/2021, the Court heard two witnesses for the president.
Energy conversion expert Prof. Dr. Sutikno, S.T., M.T. revealed his assessment of the Petitioner’s research paper for her promotion as the third assessor. The first assessor, Prof. Dr. Ir. Yanuarsyah of Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), deemed the paper not meeting the operational criteria for credit score assessment of 2014 and did not approve it. The second assessor, Prof. Dr. Syamsul Anwar, Msi of Diponegoro University (Undip), also did not approve it.
“The research paper did not meet the operational criteria for credit score assessment of 2019 and did not meet the criteria of reputable international journals. [Research] articles must follow scientific and scientific ethic guidelines,” he said virtually to the bench led by Chief Justice Anwar Usman.
Another criterion for a research paper, he revealed, is a complete format—background of the problem, formulation of the problem, objectives, methodology, results and discussion, conclusions and list of references—all of which must be coherent.
“A research paper must also have novelty. There were several findings on the Petitioner’s paper, for example, the references were not consistent, there were incomplete words, the elaboration of the formulation of the problem was incomplete, may quotes did not match the references,” Sutikno explained.
Professorship Proposal
The next witness, Director of Resources of the Directorate-General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Dr. Muhammad Sofwan Effendi, said proposals for promotion of academic positions for the rank of associate professor and professor must be sent by the university, in tiers starting from the study program, the faculty, the university, and then submitted to the Directorate-General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology through pak.kemdikbud.go.id.
“After that, the data is verified and the proposal is distributed according to the discipline for further evaluation by the central assessment team,” he explained.
Assessment for associate professor in Higher Education is processed within 14 workdays, Sofwan said. “Meanwhile, for professor it takes 55 workdays since [the Directorate of Resources] receives the proposal until the credit score is determined,” he added.
For the current judicial review case, he said, the directorate refers to the Circular Letter of the Directorate-General of Science, Technology, and Higher Education No. 1142/D1/KP/2016 on the Proposal for Academic Promotion of Lecturer to Professor, especially the recommendation that the proposal for academic promotion is carried out at least two years before the retirement age limit. Meanwhile, a new Circular Letter of the Directorate-General of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture No. 166/E.E4/K8/2020 dated February 28, 2020 on the Proposal for Academic Promotion of Lecturer to Professor, which came into effect on January 2021, sets it at least one year before the retirement age limit.
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Sri Mardiyati challenges Article 50 paragraph (4) of the Teacher and Lecturer Law, which reads, “Further provisions regarding the selection as referred to in paragraph (2) and the appointment and confirmation of certain levels of academic positions as referred to in paragraph (3) shall be determined by each higher education unit in accordance with statutory regulations.”
She is a FMIPA (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences) lecturer of the University of Indonesia (UI). Her last office is lektor kepala (associate professor). The UI rector recommended her appointment as professor to the Minister of Education and Culture in 2019, after a long selection process in UI, including academic paper assessment by a professor of mathematics from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). The nomination was denied by the Directorate-General of Higher Education on the ground of the paper not meeting requirements, when UI had already approved of the paper and its validity assessment results.
The Petitioner asserts that under Article 50 paragraph (4) of the a quo law, the appointment and confirmation of certain levels of academic positions, including a professorship, is the authority of the higher education unit or the university or the rector. However, due to the minister-assigned 2019 Operational Guidelines for Credit Score Assessment, such an authority falls on the Directorate General of Higher Education.
The Petitioner believes that is because Article 50 paragraph (4) of the a quo law mentions the phrase that the appointment and confirmation of professors is carried out by each unit following statutory regulations. The phrase is multi-interpretive because the Minister of Education and Culture then issued a regulation that grants himself the authority, which violates the substance or intention of said article. The Petitioner believes that, in practice, it is interpreted by Article 70 to mean that the appointment and confirmation of certain levels of academic positions, including a professorship, is under the minister and not the higher education unit.
Writer : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor : Nur R.
PR : Tiara Agustina
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 01/11/2022 10:00 WIB
Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.
Monday, January 10, 2022 | 15:22 WIB 206