Some college leaders Indonesian and foreign who are members of the consortium iHiLead follow the Train the Trainers at the President Executive Club, Kota Jababeka, Cikarang. Indonesia. The training, which is held offline and online, aims to increase the capacity of leaders and leadership, so that they are expected to be able to accelerate the transformation of higher education.
Indonesia has 4,670 higher education institutions in the form of universities, high schools, academies, polytechnics and community schools. All of these higher education institutions have more than 8 million students. On the other hand, the quality of higher education graduates still needs to be improved. This is because there are still many college graduates who find it difficult to find work and even become unemployed.
As an illustration, data from the Central Statistics Agency states that in February 2021 the number of the workforce will reach 139.81 million. Then, of the entire workforce, the number of Open Unemployment Rates (TPT) is 8.75 million. Of all TPT, which are university graduates reach 5.98% and Diploma I/II/III graduates are 5.87%.
One of the causes of the high TPT from universities is the quality of graduates who are not in accordance with the needs of the Industrial and Business. According to the Acting Director General of Higher Education, Cultural, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) Prof. Ir. Nizam, M.Sc., DIC, Ph.D., IPU, Asean Eng., there are still many universities in Indonesia that implement an Industry 3.0-based education system. This is out of date. For this reason, Prof. Nizam asked universities in Indonesia to dare to overhaul their education system from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0. “Currently, changes no longer occur in a linear fashion, but are increasingly complex. For this reason, universities in Indonesia must begin to abandon old competencies that are no longer needed. Universities in Indonesia must be more adaptive and dare to disrupt themselves,” said Prof. Nizam.
In order to improve the quality of graduates, collaboration between universities is very important. This was emphasized by Dr. Ir. Paristiyanti Nurwandani, MP, Secretary of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, when giving aspeech at the opening of the event Train the Trainers keynote for Indonesian Higher Education Leadership (iHiLead) facilitators, Monday (13/12) . This program is carried out in a manner hybrid. Some participants attended offline at the President Executive Club, Kota Jababeka, Cikarang, by implementing strict health procedures. Some other participants followed it online. This training event involved a number of leaders from various universities. Here what is meant by leaders include the chancellor, vice chancellor, deans and heads of study programs, other academic leaders, senior management circles, including leaders in non-academic fields (educational staff).
They members of the iHiLead consist of seven Indonesian universities and three European Union universities. The seven Indonesian universities are President University from Cikarang, Bekasi, Ahmad Dahlan University and Indonesian Islamic University from Yogyakarta, Brawijaya University and STIE Malangkucecwara from Malang, Semarang State University from Semarang, Padjajaran University from Bandung. Meanwhile, three foreign universities are University of Gloucestershire from the United Kingdom, the International School for Business and Social Studies (ISBSS) from Slovenia, and the University of Granada from Spain.
The iHiLead Consortium is led by David Dawson, PhD, FCIPD, SHEA, Director of the Master of Arts Higher Education Leadership and Management from the University of Gloucestershire. In its implementation in Indonesia, this consortium is under the supervision of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research and Technology. The iHiLead Consortium aims to improve the quality of higher education in Indonesia through reform of higher education leaders and leadership. The final goal of the consortium is for the quality of higher education graduates to be able to answer the needs of industry. To implement its programs, the iHiLead consortium has the support of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), an agency under Eramus+ of the European Union. Erasmus+ is a commission in the European Union that supports various activities in the fields of education, training, youth and sports in various countries around the world.
Apart from encouraging cooperation between higher education institutions, said Paristiyanti, the government also encourages the transformation of higher education through the Merdeka Campus program. There are eight Key Performance Indicators of the higher education transformation program which include graduates getting decent jobs, study programs receiving international accreditation, collaborative and participatory classes, study programs collaborating with world-class partners, lecturers receiving international recognition, and practicing practitioners. teaching on campus, lecturers are also active outside the campus (either in industry or other campuses), and students are given the opportunity to gain off-campus experience either through internship programs, conducting research, entrepreneurship or participating in student exchange programs. “Through this transformation, higher education is expected to be able to produce superior human resources, so that Indonesia can grow into a developed country,” said Paristiyanti.
To support the achievement of these targets, said Paristiyanti, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology has prepared a large budget. For example, during 2022, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology allocated a budget of Rp. 3 trillion which was allocated to support the Emancipated Learning (Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka) program. In addition, continued Paristiyanti, the Ministry of Education and Culture and Research and Technology also supports the collaboration of higher education in Indonesia with international institutions, such as the iHiLead consortium.
In order to produce graduates who are able to answer the needs of industry, universities also need to make a transformation—as proclaimed by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology through the MBKM program. In order for the transformation to take place, capacity building for leaders and leadership is a key factor. That is what the program to achieve Train the Trainers aims.
In his welcoming remarks to the participants of the program Train the Trainers, the Chancellor of President University, Prof. Dr. Jony Oktavian Haryanto, emphasized the importance of transforming leaders and leadership in higher education in an effort to improve the quality of higher education in Indonesia. Jony said, “Through this program, it is hoped that the capacity of leaders and leadership in higher education will increase. With this capacity increase, universities are expected to be able to produce graduates who will become future leaders.”
Through this training, Jony also hopes that university leaders will be able to explore various information and gain a lot of knowledge, so that they have a better understanding of what is being and will be done. He said again, “I also hope that this training can increase the positive energy of higher education leaders. Then, the information and positive energy can be disseminated to the educational institutions they lead and to the community.”
There are a number of topics that are the focus of this training event. Among them are issues of authentic leadership, immunity to change, how to manage university resources and human resources, managing change and risk, including managing conflict. In addition, this training also discusses strategies related to action learning and how to implement change projects in universities, including designing changes that have a positive impact.
Overview of the Six Goals of the iHiLead
The consortium consists of seven Indonesian universities and three universities from the European Union. Meanwhile, what is meant by leaders includes the chancellor, vice chancellor, deans and heads of study programs, other academic leaders, senior management circles, including leaders in non-academic fields (educational staff). Referring to the definition of leadership, in the seven universities that are members of the iHiLead consortium alone, there are at least 1,731 leaders and managers. They oversee 7,300 staff and 189,000 students.
There are six goals that the iHiLead consortium wants to achieve.
First, to explore best practices from universities in the European Union that are consortium partners. This includes the design and delivery of the leadership development framework, network and programs. All of this is done to increase the leadership and managerial capacity of the leaders of universities in Indonesia.
Second, to build a network between leaders and management in consortium member universities. Later this network is directed to focus on aspects of governance, planning and strategic management, which are aligned and can be applied in various universities in Indonesia.
Third, to organize training for lecturers and education staff at universities. This training is carried out within the framework of leadership and managerial development, network development and other related programs.
Fourth, to build infrastructure to support and ensure network continuity. This move is part of a new leadership and managerial development effort and related programs.
Fifth, to design a pilot model and implementation of a new leadership and managerial network and other related programs in universities in Indonesia.
Sixth, to disseminate new frameworks, networks and programs, after all the networks and programs have been implemented by the seven universities that are members of the consortium. This dissemination is carried out not only for various universities in Indonesia, but also in the European Union and the world.