3 Indonesian State Universities in Top 500 List Baffles Jokowi

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was baffled by the fact that only three Indonesian state universities managed to break into the world’s top 500 list.

In a meeting held at the State Palace yesterday, the president questioned the performance of the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry and 112 state university rectors.

“How many decades have we gone through but ended with only three universities included in the top 500? Please respond to this. Is it because of managements or other elements?” said Jokowi, urging stakeholders to quickly respond to this condition.

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The president argues that speed is one of the key upon leading the world’s competition. “Speed is the key, the dynamic will always defeat the static,” the president continued.

Jokowi reminded state officials and university rectors to not be content with current conditions since such attitude would mean that the country’s education system is already far behind the rest of the world.

According to the Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir, the three Indonesian state-universities that are included in the world’s top 500 universities is University of Indonesia (UI) that ranks 292 worldwide, University of Gadjah Mada (UGM) in 391st spot, and Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) that is ranked 359 worldwide.

VINDRY FLORENTIN