About iHilead

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.


The Indonesian Higher Education sector is facing significant change as it moves from a phase of expansion as it has increased access to a greater proportion of the population, to one where the focus is on enhancing the quality of that education. Enhancing the quality of higher education is essential as studies show it falls well below international standards.

OECD and World Bank reports demonstrate that the Indonesian Higher Education sector needs to improve its responsiveness tothe demands of industry and commerce in terms of providing skilled graduates, but also in becoming better at providing research that underpins innovation (Southeast Asian Economic Outlook, 2011/12; Negara et al, 2014).

A lack of investment in education compared to close competitor nations and a lack of skilled staff educated to doctorate level have been seen to be contributory factors to the lack of quality. The challenge of the higher education system is linked to the limited funding available compared to the number of higher education institutions operating.

There are more than 4,000 institutions with high disparity in terms of quality and infrastructure. The disparity is partly caused by Indonesia’s geography, as the country is spread across a very large archipelago. It has been very challenging for MOE to try to reduce the disparity between the highly‐ranked and low ranked HEIs, while ensuring that the quality of leading HEIs can be maintained and further increased. The lower‐ranked HEIs, especially many small private HEIs, tend to focus only on teaching since they have limited numbers of academic staff available. The teaching hours of academic staff often exceed the maximum hours set by the government. This phenomenon has its roots in the funding system. These institutions predominantly gain their funding from tuition fees, and so therefore aim to have as many students enrolled as possible. They also experience staff shortages, which results in increased teaching hours with no time left for the other two activities of research and community service. However, the main cause of the failings is put down to leaders at national level and in Higher Education institutions not being able to focus on the changes necessary to deliver quality higher education (Rosser, 2018). Indeed, it is clear that there is a need to support leaders so that the necessary reforms to higher education in Indonesia are delivered.

This phenomenon has underpinned the key reforms of the newly elected Minister of Education and Culture. The reforms are focused on creating more flexibility and autonomy in an HEI’s management and administration, and the capacity building of the leaders to cope with that autonomy. This leads to another challenge related to the lack of financial and curriculum flexibility in most of HEIs. Not only that, the limited number of university leaders who are competent to execute effective leadership also contributes to the failing system.

The level of commitment of leaders in HEIs to continuous improvement has also been a problematic issue. Until recently, only 96 universities out of almost 3000 HEIs are accredited A, and less than 10% of them could be considered international‐standard by well‐known international academic league tables such as QS World University Ranking. This explains why most of the HEIs are not ready to internationalise. It is believed that the lack of capacity of academic leaders in HEIs is key to the lack of progress on quality improvement.

The project will meet the need through the transfer, development and implementation of a formal leadership and management development framework and an associated leadership development network based around a programme of development. This programme will be tailored to the specific needs of higher education institutions, and their leadership and management staff, in Indonesia. There is a clear and locally identified need to implement a high quality programme, of the sort successfully used by the EU partner institutions, to develop the leadership and management skills base in Indonesian higher education institutions if the full benefit of structural change in the sector is to be achieved. When recognising this need, the Indonesian universities and the Ministry of Education and Culture (P9, MOE) wish to work in collaboration to develop a common framework and development network that can be used by all Indonesian higher education institutions. MOE has mandated the seven Indonesian partner universities to develop such a programme. MOE has also committed to subsequently set national policy that mandates the engagement of all universities in Indonesia with the framework and in the leadership development network and programme. The Indonesian partners recognise the immediate need and potential to create a step change in the quality of leadership and management in HE that will deliver on the full potential of structural change for the sector.

THIS PROGRAM is to create steps to change the quality of leadership and management involving all universities in Indonesia

This program ensures that the leadership and management development opportunities developed through the project will be appropriate and of value for the full range of Indonesian HEIs. In turn, this will make sure that good leadership and management practices are distributed widely during the project as well as at the stage of dissemination.

Strengthening the capacity of leaders and managers to negotiate, plan for, and deliver on the changes needed for the transformation of the sector in order to increase the quality of provision. As such, a key aim of the project is to support the continuing programme of reform in the higher education sector.

It does this by developing the qualities and skills of managing finances, managing risk, and effective management and delivery of projects. Similarly, by developing programme participants so that they become stronger leaders who are competent at creating

and communicating their vision for their area of responsibility, formulating and instilling strategy, creating change, and dealing with politics, the programme will enable them to support the continued health of their institutions and the sector as a whole.

Why does the EU support leadership capacity building in Indonesia?

This project will be the first opportunity for Indonesian universities have had to develop a LMD network and LMD programme to meet the current change agenda in higher education. By including some of the most innovative institutions in leadership development from across Europe, the project provides a forum for cross‐fertilisation which will allow for further innovation to take place not just in Indonesia, but also Capacity Building in the field of higher education

The project has six objectives, to:

  • Establish where best practice in EU partner universities on the design and delivery of leadership development frameworks, networks, and programmes can be applied to increase the leadership and management capacity of Indonesian universities (WP2.1)
  • Create a higher education leadership and management network and an associated programme focused on governance, strategic planning and management, that is appropriate for delivery in Indonesian universities (WP2.1)
  • Train the staff of Indonesian universities in the delivery of the leadership and management development framework, network and its associated programme (WP2.2 & WP2.3)
  • Create an infrastructure to support and sustain the new leadership and management development network and its associated programme (WP2.1)
  • Pilot and then implement the new leadership and management development network and its associated development programme in Indonesian universities (WP2.2 & WP2.3)
  • Disseminate the framework, new network and programme and findings, after their implementation, for higher education across Indonesian universities, the EU, and internationally (WP4)
Who are the stakeholders in Indonesia and how will they benefit?    

The project operates at a national, regional, local, institutional level. 

  • The Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education in Indonesia 
  • Universities in Indonesia
  • Leaders in the university levels.
How will the project be implemented?​

This project is started in January 2021 until end of 2024. There are two big programs namely LMDP (Leadership and management Development Program) and Leadership and Management Development Network (LMDN).
There are some steps for implementing the Leadership and Management Development Program (LMDP).
First, train the trainers workshop. Second, piloting leadership workshop which is divided into 3 phase: Phase 1 – Building Initiative; Phase 2 – Project of Change and Phase 3 – Creating Impact. Third, after those phases have delivered to the trainees, each university partners will implement it to their leaders in the university level to create the impact of this piloting project. Fourth, this program will be implemented to other universities in Indonesia. The successfully leaders who has pass this program will get Certified Certificate that issued by Association that created by 7 consortium universities.
Furthermore, LMDN will be done by creating an association which will held leadership training and issue the certified certificate of leadership.

Quality management

To assure that the project runs well and have a significant impact on the leadership in the HE on the national level, the process must be monitored and evaluated by advisory group and external evaluator.