Universitas Indonesia (UI) at the end of 2023 is still in the top position – included in the top 16% of the world’s best universities – based on a release issued by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings (WUR) 2024. This ranking is based on a number of assessment indicators, one of which is reputation. According to the UI University Secretary, dr. Agustin Kusumayati, M.Sc., Ph.D., there are at least three types of reputation that are used as indicators in ranking, namely academic reputation, employer reputation, and alumni reputation. These three indicators are used to see UI’s reputation among academics and graduate users, as well as the reputation of UI graduates.
On one occasion, dr. Agustin explained that a university’s reputation is built based on the reputation of its academics. “Each scientific field has its own circles,” she said. Networking is seen as important by dr. Agustin for opening up opportunities to collaborate at an international level. Lecturers who are members of the multilateral community have the opportunity to establish bilateral collaboration with other universities.
Therefore, UI encourages its lecturers to collaborate with international partners in the fields of joint education and research. Publication of the results of this joint research will have an influence on citations which are also an indicator in ranking.
Apart from academic reputation, employer reputation is also a benchmark in ranking. A university’s reputation in front of employers is determined by the quality of its graduates. The more employers praise the quality of a university’s graduates, the better the university’s reputation. For this reason, UI continues to strive to provide the best teaching to produce great alumni in which employers are satisfied with the skills and capacities of UI graduates.
According to dr. Agustin, UI’s reputation among employers is built through guarantees that UI graduates have good quality. UI prepares the best curriculum that allows the quality of the graduates produced meets or even exceeds employer needs. “UI involves employers from the process of updating the curriculum to the study materials. If necessary, we involve employers and professionals to teach. The aim is to maintain the relevance of the educational programs being held,” said dr. Agustin.
In ranking, alumni reputation is also an assessment indicator as alumni can truthfully assess the suitability of the knowledge gained at the university with their needs in the world of work. For this reason, dr. Agustin considers that feedback from alumni is very important for educational progress.
She said, “UI continues to maintain relationships with alumni where both provide mutual benefits. Information about the suitability of UI programs and products towards the needs in the world of work is obtained from alumni. UI also received input from them regarding skills that might be developed as continuing professional education. This is done to let UI alumni be at the forefront and become part of lifelong learning.”
These three reputations cannot be built alone. UI requires collaboration with various parties (n-helix) to provide quality education. These parties include government, industry, civil society, media, and society. With the government, UI works together to manage available resources through the provision of various learning and research facilities. Not only that, employees at government institutions also have the opportunity to continue their education at UI through a scholarship scheme.
With industrial partners, UI collaborates in the field of innovation research to produce products that society needs. This collaboration is carried out from the initial stage (upstreaming) to produce products that are right on target and can be marketed. “UI has produced many innovative products, one of which is the Covent-20 Ventilator to help Covid-19 patients. After being created by UI researchers, this product was then mass-produced by industry. From the sales, UI has received royalties.”
Even so, dr. Agustin emphasized the importance of maintaining ethics in cooperation. Research conducted by UI researchers must not benefit one party. “For example, we examine drugs produced by a company. There is a great temptation to produce results that the drug has good benefits and effects. However, we have values that are in accordance with UI principles, namely Veritas, Probitas, Justitia. Therefore, even though there is cooperation, we will not commit fraud. Our research must be correct, honest and fair,” she said.
The products produced by UI, whether in the fields of science-technology, social-humanities or health, need to be socialized to the public. This education will certainly be limited if it only relies on the government and academics. Therefore, cooperation with civil society and the media needs to be carried out in order for information related to innovation to be passed on and the benefits of these products can be felt directly by the public.
“Civil society has networks and resources, while the media is our friend in disseminating information. Don’t forget, UI’s ultimate goal is to become a teacher. UI can certainly provide broad education to the public through the media. That being said, if we want to carry out our function as the nation’s teachers, we have to be friends with the media,” said dr. Agustin. At the end of the interview, she added that in maintaining partnerships with various parties, UI must maintain quality, build trust, and continue to make improvements.
