A Critical Partnership for Indonesia 2045: The Strategic Role of Universities
Ahmad Tholabi Kharlie
(Professor at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta)
The briefing by President Prabowo Subianto held at the Merdeka Palace on January 15, 2026, brought together more than a thousand rectors and professors from public and private universities.
In the forum, Prabowo outlined the government’s strategic policy direction toward Golden Indonesia 2045, while affirming the strategic role of higher education in addressing national challenges.
His main message was clear: universities must not function merely as observers and centers of knowledge production but must make tangible contributions to solving the nation’s problems.
The president's decision to speak directly to academic leaders and authorities reflects an awareness that contemporary challenges—ranging from food and energy security, the quality of human resources, and health services to technological disruption and geopolitical dynamics—cannot be resolved solely through administrative policies and technocratic approaches.
The Role of the Intellectual Elite
Public policy requires scientific reasoning and depth of reflection. In this context, the intellectual elite are positioned as strategic partners of the state, not merely as complements to the political process.
This call should be understood as an invitation to shared responsibility. Higher education is no longer adequate if seen as a space detached from social realities. The academic community and intellectual elites of universities are expected to be part of the solution.
Campuses are not asked to justify every policy but are expected to contribute critically and constructively for the public good.
Indonesia is currently facing structural and multidimensional problems. Food and energy security are closely linked to climate change. Inequality in the quality of human resources is related to access to education and health services. Meanwhile, the shortage of healthcare workers, including the deficit of doctors, reflects systemic issues in education, workforce distribution, and policy governance.
These issues demand interdisciplinary, data-based, and long-term approaches—areas that are core competencies of universities.
However, it must be acknowledged that universities are often trapped in academic routines that are disconnected from real societal problems.
The tridharma of higher education is frequently reduced to administrative obligations: teaching limited to classrooms, research ending in publications, and community service that is largely ceremonial.
As a result, knowledge develops, but its impact on solving national problems remains suboptimal.
In this context, the president's briefing can be read as a reminder that state investment in higher education must align with contributions that are felt by society.
These contributions should not be symbolic but should take the form of relevant intellectual work, evidence-based policy recommendations, and the strengthening of public systems.
Indonesia’s history shows that the educated class has played an important role since the national movement and the early years of independence.
Yet history also records the dilemma that accompanies it: maintaining academic independence without falling into sterile opposition and cooperating with the state without losing integrity.
A Critical Partnership
Therefore, what is needed is principled engagement—an intellectual presence that is both critical and solution-oriented.
The state’s call to universities should be understood as an effort to build a critical partnership, not a subordinative relationship.
Campuses must maintain their critical capacity while contributing to enriching public policy through objective and long-term academic analysis.
In this framework, criticism is not an obstacle but part of a more mature policy-making process.
The issue of the shortage of doctors highlighted in the briefing is a concrete example. The deficit does not stand alone; it is linked to educational design, workforce distribution, incentives, and healthcare governance.
The solution is not simply to increase student quotas or open new study programs. It requires designing an educational ecosystem that is adaptive, collaborative, and aligned with community needs, without compromising academic quality standards.
Universities need to be strengthened as laboratories of public policy, with faculty and student research directed at addressing concrete issues while meeting academic performance standards.
The state needs evidence-based policy foundations, and universities have the capacity to provide them if their intellectual energy is properly directed.
In this regard, President Prabowo’s policy to increase the higher education research budget to around Rp 12 trillion, from approximately Rp 8 trillion previously, deserves appreciation.
This policy sends a strong signal that the state places research and innovation as key foundations in public policymaking.
However, increased funding does not automatically guarantee research quality and impact. Accountable governance, clear research orientation toward solving national problems, and academic courage to move beyond repetitive and less relevant research patterns are necessary.
Here, the meaning of university autonomy must be placed proportionally. Autonomy should not be understood merely as freedom from state intervention but as a broader space of social responsibility in responding to public needs.
Campuses that enjoy autonomy are required to maintain relevance and integrity by taking sides in solving societal problems. Without such orientation, autonomy risks losing moral legitimacy in the eyes of the public.
In this framework, state support in the form of regulation, budget, and policy must be responded to with intellectual dedication directed toward the public interest.
The contribution of higher education is realized through honest and critical academic work, consistently oriented toward long-term public welfare.
This condition requires a repositioning of the intellectual elite’s role—from focusing on knowledge production to substantive involvement in solving public problems.
Thus, intellectuals do not merely act as observers but as reflective subjects who participate responsibly in policy and social spaces.
More broadly, the Golden Indonesia 2045 agenda rests not only on economic growth and infrastructure development but also on improving human resource quality, strengthening institutions, and fostering collective maturity of thought—areas that constitute the strategic mandate of higher education.
The president's briefing can therefore be understood as an initial step in a series of efforts to strengthen the role of universities in the national agenda.
The space for dialogue has been opened, and universities are expected to respond through relevant and sustainable academic work.
In this context, intellectual stature is reflected not only in academic reputation but also in the ability to translate knowledge into fair policies, sustainable systems, and improved human dignity.
Ultimately, time will judge how far the intellectual elite respond to this call with intellectual courage, ethical consistency, and national responsibility.
This article was published in Kompas on Friday, January 16, 2026.