INDONESIA: The Politics of Equity and Quality in Higher Education

This chapter examines recent developments in Indonesian higher education. It focuses on the efforts to establish and maintain equity and quality as they intersect with the dynamics of massification, internationalization, and governance. The chapter also contextualizes Indonesia within South-East Asia, with comparative attention given to middle-income ASEAN countries. Each predicament is analyzed through relevant policies and datasets from both national and international agencies. Indonesia has managed to expand tertiary education with limited governmental funding, but forgoing equity and quality. Despite its extraordinary growth, Indonesian universities remain out of reach for most youth. Internationalization, pressures for remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the overrepresentation of students from Java, urban centers, and higher social classes pose some complications in the realm of equity. In addition, students who succeed in entering college often find questionable quality in teaching and research. The Indonesian higher educational system remains financially underfunded and bureaucratically centralized. © Oxford University Press 2023.