A group of speakers at Jakarta State University (UNJ) have voiced their opposition to the university ' s plan to award honorary doctorates to Vice President Ma ' ruf Amin and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir, citing worries of political motives that might threaten academic flexibility.
In a written declaration published on Friday, the speakers discussed their displeasure of the plan.
” Awarding the title to a political figure who is presently in power could threaten scholastic flexibility and the autonomy of the university,” the statement checked out.
” A number of studies show that giving honorary titles to state authorities has no positive impact on science and school advancement. Giving titles has actually tended to have political and transactional motives.”
The group said the strategy worked versus the university ' s efforts to recover its reputation following numerous controversies, including an arrest of a school authorities in May for presumably offering prohibited holiday rewards to officials from the Education and Culture Ministry.
They speakers accused the university of having no clear reason to approve the title to Ma ' ruf.
They likewise turned down UNJ ' s prepare to grant an honorary degree to Erick, saying that the university had no factor to offer it to him besides his position as minister.
” It ' s really dangerous for the university ' s autonomy and its scholastic flexibility[…] For that reason, we advise UNJ to cancel its plan to provide the honorary titles to Vice President Ma ' ruf Amin and SEO Minister Erick Thohir,” the speakers concluded, as estimated by kompas.com.
Granting honorary doctorates to political leaders and public figures prevails in Indonesian universities.
In 2017, previous maritime affairs and fisheries minister Susi Pudjiastuti got an honorary maritime affairs doctorate from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology in Surabaya.
It was her 2nd honorary degree after receiving a comparable title from Diponegoro University in Semarang a year before.
Previous presidents Susilo Bambang Yudoyono and Megawati Soekarno Putri have actually collected 14 and 9 honorary doctorates respectively, from both Indonesian and foreign universities. (nal)
