Judicial review hearing of Law No. 14 of 2005 on Teachers and Lecturers to hear the Relevant Party’s witness, Monday (1/24/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.
Monday, January 24, 2022 | 16:16 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 24, 2022. At the hearing for petition No. 20/PUU-XIX/2021, the Court heard a witness for the Relevant Party University of Indonesia (UI). The petition was filed by Sri Mardiyati, a FMIPA (Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences) lecturer of UI, who asserted that Article 50 paragraph (4) of the a quo law had hindered her from receiving a professorship.
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The Relevant Party presented FMIPA UI professor Yoki Yulizar, who said that professors held important and strategic positions at UI. The number of professors also determines UI’s national and international rankings.
“As such, the addition of professors is a strategic target within the UI Strategic Plans,” he explained before the plenary hearing chaired by Chief Justice Anwar Usman.
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Yoki said that the need for UI professors had increased, especially in FMIPA, including in the Department of Mathematics. Since 2018, the department had not had any professor, so it had difficulties starting a mathematics doctoral study program.
“The process of professorship proposal at UI was meticulous, starting with that at the department, FMIPA, and UI. For example, what the Petitioner, Ms. Sri Mardiyati, experienced. She applied for the credit score assessment from [the position of] associate professor in 2016 with the credit score of 550 to [the position of] professor with the credit score of 850, which requires 300 credit scores. Of the credit score, the largest component is research, which requires 45 percent or around 135 credit scores,” he explained.
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Yoki explained that the review of journal articles in the faculty typically involves two reviewers of journal articles outside of UI. For the Petitioner’s application, UI invited journal reviewers of the same discipline from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). Then, the dean sent a proposal to the rector, who then relayed it to UI professors, whose assessment results were sent back to the rector.
After the Petitioner’s file for the application was declared complete, it was submitted to Dikti (Higher Education), who rejected the application.
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The Petitioner 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.”
As 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 : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Tiara Agustina
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 01/25/2022 08:58 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 24, 2022 | 16:16 WIB 217