LEGAL POLITICS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDONESIA: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Cholida Hanum (a*), Tri Wibowo (b)

Universitas Islam Negeri Salatiga, Indonesia
UIN Saizu Purwokerto, Indonesia

Abstract

The constitutional mandate states that education is the right of every citizen, even confirmed in article 34 paragraph (4) of Indonesian Constitution. The education budget allocation is 20% of the state budget to meet the needs for the implementation of national education. Education, which is the responsibility of the state, is then reduced to privatization. With this privatization, the paradigm of higher education changed from being a non-profit institution to a profit institution based on corporatization. This is proven by the increasingly expensive costs of higher education with the increase in single tuition fees. Even though this policy was not implemented this year, this does not mean that it will not be implemented next year and it also does not mean that this problem is resolved. This research examines how the direction of higher education policy is portrayed from the government^s perspective through applicable policies and regulations as well as other related legal products. This research is a type of normative legal research using secondary data, namely primary legal materials in the form of Indonesian Constitution, the National Education System Law, the Higher Education Law and Regulations from the Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology as well as related articles and books. The results of this research show that the government^s legal products have a market-based, neo-liberalistic paradigm that only prepares skilled workforce candidates instead of producing individuals who are intellectually, morally intelligent and contribute to society.

Keywords: Legal Politics, Higher Education, Opportunities, Challenges.

Topic: Law