Acting Director-General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology Nizam representing the Government at a judicial review hearing of the Higher Education Law, Wednesday (2/28/2024). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Acting Director-General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nizam testified on behalf of the Government for case No. 135/PUU-XXI/2023 on the material judicial review hearing of Article 70 paragraph (3) Law No. 12 of 2012 on Higher Education on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 in the plenary courtroom.

Nizam asserted that the Petitioners had mistakenly interpreted the allocation of funds for private university organizing bodies (PTS) sourced from the state revenue and expenditure budget (APBN) or regional revenue and expenditure budget (APBD) to provide base salaries and allowances to lecturers. In addition to misinterpreting it, the request for such budget allocations from the APBN or APBD was baseless.

“That is, there is no budget allocation for base salaries and allowances to PTS lecturers as this has been regulated in Article 89 paragraph (1) of the Higher Education Law,” said Nizam before the constitutional justices.

He also emphasized that there is no government intervention in the appointment, placement, and even dismissal of lecturers at private universities. Therefore, there is no official relationship between private lecturers and the government, so the responsibility for providing base salaries and allowances cannot be transferred to the government.

“So, the organization of education by private universities, including lecturers, is not a delegation of the implementation of government affairs in education,” said Nizam.

He also revealed higher education funding that come from the state budget for private universities. First, payment for lecturer certification allowances and professor allowances. Second, research funding assistance. Third, funding assistance for community service. Fourth, funding for capacity building of lecturers and education personnel through various schemes such as scholarships for further studies, training, participation in academic meetings, seminars, conferences, and so on, as well as various funding schemes for private universities such as higher education institution grants, study program grants, funding for academic journal development, and so on.

Nizam said that a number of Constitutional Court decisions regarding the education budget have become a reference in the allocation of the education budget. After these decisions, he added, the Government and the House of Representatives (DPR) have consistently followed the decisions in terms of allocations, calculation, and components of the education budget.

In addition, he explained, historically and factually, the community has organized both formal and non-formal community-based education, known as private education units or PTS. This is a form of pluralism in organizing education in Indonesia. As such, public and private education do not negate each other and both are real forms of participation within the framework of shared responsibility.

The government do not delegate the obligation to educate the nation to lecturers of private universities. The concept of shared responsibility as embraced by the National Education System Law has been interpreted by the Constitutional Court in Decision No. 10/PUU-XIII/2015.

Nizam also asserted that the National Education System Law does not left community-organized education seek its own funding completely. In this case, Article 55 of the National Education System Law regulates the basic framework for the community to organize education as a right, but the source of its funding is not only the community, but also the central government and/or local governments.

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The Petitioners—Teguh Satya Bhakti, a law lecturer of Krisna Dwipayana University, and Fachri Bachmid, a lecturer at the Muslim University of Indonesia, Makassar—assert that the state’s (government) obligations towards private and state higher education institutions (PTS and PTN) should be fulfilled and both types of institutions should be treated equally. The difference between both is only the establishment and organizers: public ones are established and/or organized by the Government, while private ones by the community.

The Petitioners’ legal counsel Viktor Santoso Tandiasa said that in higher education funds sourced from the APBN and/or APBD are not allocated for lecturers’ basic salaries, so as stipulated in Article 70 paragraph (3) of Law No. 2 of 2012, they are determined based on the ability of each institution, which is measured by the minimum wage (UMK). “Considering Article 70 paragraph (2) of Law No. 12 of 2012, the appointment and placement of lecturers and education personnel are based on work agreements that refer to Law No. 13 of 2003,” he added.

Moreover, he said, the imposition of the obligation to provide the basic salaries of private lecturers only to the organizing body clearly has an impact on the inequality/disparity of the basic salaries of private lecturers. It not only occurs between private and state lecturers, but also among private lecturers. Private institutions under organizing bodies having high financial resources and located in areas with high minimum wages will certainly provide high basic salaries to their lecturers.

For that reason, in the petitum, the Petitioners request that the Court declare the phrase “in accordance with the statutory laws and regulations” in Article 70 paragraph (3) of the Higher Education Law is unconstitutional and not legally binding insofar as it is not interpreted to mean “The management body as referred to in paragraph (2) shall provide base salaries and allowances for lecturers and teaching personnel with funds generated from the National Budget and/or Regional Budget.”

Author       : Mimi Kartika
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Tiara Agustina
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

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.

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