82 sector. In contrast, the main funding of private HEIs is derived from student tuition fees.
Other sources are from charitable donations and collaboration with other parties. In addition, the government subsidizes private HEIs in the form of employment of
academic staff Buchori Malik, 2004. Moeliodihardjo 2000, p. 8 claimed that “among the 2,766 private institutions, only a handful have successfully attracted an
adequate number of students, whilst the majority are small and are struggling to survive”. In other words, student enrolment is a critical issue for private HEIs.
Emirbayer and Williams 2005, p. 691 state that, “capitals function both as weapons and as stakes in the struggle to gain ascendancy within fields”. Accordingly, private
universities in Indonesia compete for attracting students. In order to fight for prime position in the field and to have the access to attain more capitals, private universities in
Indonesia, including Kanjuruhan University of Malang KUM, need to do more promotion and innovation such as creating an effective and distinct curriculum that is
suitable with students’ need or offering a student exchange program to attract the student enrollment. They need to equip themselves with the brand to improve the
credibility in the community since “players follow strategies to try to distinguish themselves within the field by accumulating higher level or different types of capital
from their competitors” Brosnan, 2010, p. 647.
4.2.2 Accreditation in the Indonesian higher education system
In the Indonesian context, one way of gauging the relative positioning of HEIs and how much capital they possess is through their accreditation level. Accreditation is
used a means of ensuring quality control in the Indonesian higher education system. Buchori and Malik 2004 explained that in the past, accreditation was administered
only for private HEIs as public HEIs were already considered as suitably qualified. The accreditation recognized the quality of private HEIs in three grading levels: disamakan
equalized, diakui recognized, and terdaftar registered. Disamakan is the highest level and is awarded to faculties that demonstrate good quality. This allows the HEI to
administer its own final graduation examinations. In contrast, private HEIS with a diakui or terdaftar accreditation level means that “students would have to go through
final examinations organized by the kopertis, the private higher education coordinating body, and conducted at a designated public university” Buchori Malik, 2004, p.
264.
83 The new accreditation system now requires both public and private HEIs to be
assessed on their practice. The National Accreditation Board for Higher Education Badan Akreditasi Nasional Perguruan Tinggi, BAN-PT conducts accreditation in all
programs every three to five years. In addition, according to the law on higher education UU 122012, every individual HEI study program must be reviewed when its
accreditation period ends. Assessment in the accreditation process focuses on a range of aspects: curriculum, the quality and quantity of lecturers, student welfare, the
institution’s facilities and infrastructure, and the management administration Wicaksono Friawan, 2011. Nizam 2006 further explained that for undergraduate
and diploma programs, the accreditation given ranges from A satisfactory to D unsatisfactory; whereas for post-graduate programs, there are three levels: U
excellent, B good, and T fair. Chart 6 below, taken from BAN-PT, illustrates the accreditation levels A,B,C of undergraduate accredited study programs for different
types of HEIs.
Chart 6: Accreditation levels A,B,C of undergraduate accredited study programs for different types of HEIs in 2014
The above chart indicates that the quality of HEIs is still poor because most HEIs were accredited as B and C. In addition, public HEIs are higher in A accreditation level but
lower in C accreditation levels than private HEIs. Therefore, the accreditation levels of
5 10
15 20
25 30
A B
C PublicUniv
PrivateUniv
84 public HEIs are considerably better than private HEIs. Public HEIs in turn can be seen
to equate to possessing high levels of symbolic capital because a high accreditation level in itself confers prestige upon the HEIs. Clearly, public HEIs are able to attract the
students with the highest grades. Further, because the accreditation level of HEIs is associated with quality, the level also represents a measure of cultural capital of being
viewed as a ‘good’ university. The next section of this chapter introduces the setting of this study, Kanjuruhan University of Malang. It provides a general profile of the
institution and the policy that governs teachers’ professional practice.
4.3 Kanjuruhan University of Malang KUM
