The So-called "Publish or Perish" and the Commodification of Global Higher Education
Prof. Dr. Ahmad Tholabi Kharlie, M.A. M.H.
Professor at UIN Jakarta
In recent years, higher education has been shaken by a relentless stream of academic scandals. From the proliferation of predatory journals and fraudulent conferences to citation manipulation rings and the aggressive commercialization of scholarly activity, news of academic misconduct has become distressingly routine. While these incidents involve individual actors, they point to a far more profound existential crisis: Have modern universities betrayed the foundational spirit that gave birth to them?
Today, higher education institutions face an overwhelming array of external mandates. They are expected to churn out workplace-ready graduates, expand publication volume, drive industrial innovation, build global research networks, and climb the ranks of international university leaderboards. While these ambitions are valid, a fatal shift occurs when the metrics of success cease to be mere measuring tools and instead become the ultimate purpose of the institution itself.
The university, once conceived as a sacred community dedicated to the pursuit of truth, has been transformed into a corporate entity obsessed with performance indicators. Professors are evaluated through article counts, citation indices, h-index thresholds, and grant dollars. Students are conditioned to chase grade point averages, certificates, and speedy graduation rates. Institutions compete endlessly for prestige rankings and elite accreditations.
In this hyper-quantified ecosystem, a vital question emerges: Is there any room left in academia for genuine contemplation, deep dialogue, and the cultivation of human character?
From its historical inception, the university was never intended to function merely as a factory for labor production. As Wilhelm von Humboldt articulated in 1810, the modern university relies on the conviction that knowledge can flourish only when scholars possess the absolute freedom to think, investigate, and speak without political or economic coercion. Institutional autonomy was never a privilege, but a prerequisite for the pursuit of truth.
When quantitative evaluation becomes an obsession, however, institutions lose their moral compass. In his critique The Tyranny of Metrics, historian Jerry Z. Muller warned of the systemic damage that occurs when organizations become addicted to standardized performance measurement. Professors write articles simply to hit quotas, researchers choose safe topics over groundbreaking inquiries because they are easier to publish, and international collaborations are forged to satisfy global benchmarks rather than to enrich human knowledge.
This dynamic is a classic demonstration of Goodhart’s Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. In academia, the consequences of this law are devastatingly visible. It has spawned predatory publishers, paper mills, citation cartels, and a lucrative conference industry that prioritizes corporate profit over scientific rigor.
The human toll on campus life is severe. Faculty members spend their most creative years buried under mountain ranges of administrative reporting. The quiet time required to read deeply, mentor students, debate colleagues, and engage in scientific reflection has been systematically erased. Yet the true quality of a university is almost always born in the unquantifiable relationship between teacher and scholar, a bond that no key performance indicator can ever capture.
Universities carry a responsibility far broader than producing technical patents. Higher education is charged with safeguarding public reason, nurturing social empathy, and developing critical citizens. As philosopher Martha Nussbaum observed, without this humanistic dimension, higher education may produce skilled technicians, but it will fail to cultivate wise human beings.
Restoring the soul of the university does not mean rejecting modern accountability, institutional autonomy, or global collaboration. Rather, it demands the courage to reinstate core academic values as the primary compass for institutional policy.
Scholars must be allowed to be inspiring mentors rather than paper pushers. Research must aim to solve real societal problems rather than languish as metric points in obscure journals. Students must be encouraged to become independent thinkers, honest creators, and ethical citizens rather than credential collectors.
Ultimately, history will not remember universities for the volume of their administrative compliance filings or their position on a global ranking chart. History remembers universities for the courage of their ideas, the integrity of their scholars, and their enduring contribution to human civilization.
This article was published on Jawa Pos in August, 3 2026.