INDONESIAN HIGHER EDUCATION: ISSUES IN INSTITUTIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL CAPACITIES

This chapter aims to illustrate how Indonesian higher education (HE) has struggled to compete in the globalised world, as evidenced by the country’s below-average performance in global university rankings and the Global Innovation Index, despite the significant support from the government to improve Indonesia’s capacity for knowledge production. To further examine this issue, related sustainable development goals in HE (e.g. SDG 4.3) are framed within the discussion of the interrelated concepts of leadership, autonomy, quality, research, and innovation. This chapter shows that the lack of understanding of these concepts by both the government and university leaders may have affected the HE sector’s ability to improve institutional capacity. A contextual background of the country’s HE sector is also discussed alongside governance issues in three periods, i.e. colonialisation, post-colonialisation (Old Order regime), and the post-New Order Regime. © 2025 by Nurdiana Gaus.