Yogyakarta, Surabaya – More than 500 lecturers, employees and students of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University (UGM) staged a protest on Monday against pay increases decided upon by the rector.
The new salary policy, for instance, raised the salary of a professor by between Rp 270,000 and Rp 900,000 each, while the university's rector and deans enjoyed a 400 percent rise, becoming Rp 25 million and Rp 15 million respectively.
"The salary increase was the trigger of our protest. There's many problems here at UGM and things just exploded at the same time as the new policy [was introduced]," said Arie Soedjito, a lecturer and coordinator of the protest.
The lecturer at UGM's School of Social and Political Sciences claims that ever since the university became a state-owned legal entity (BHMN), it has experienced education disorientation.
Ethically, he said, UGM should be responsible for developing knowledge. "But what's happen is the other way around. UGM has experienced disorientation and fallen into education capitalism," Arie said.
Monday's protest, he said, is just the beginning. Lecturers and relevant elements in the university will reanalyze whether BHMN's implementation meets true education goals.
"If the rector doesn't respond to this we might stop teaching, but first the rector must cancel the salary increase because it's unfair and needs to be tested publicly," Arie said.
The head of UGM's population study, Muhammad Maksum, said the problem was not the amount of the raises, but whether the policy would benefit and develop UGM, which claims to be a research university.
"A professor only gets Rp 15,000 per hour while conducting research. It would be better to use the money [for salary increases] to develop the sciences. Not that we don't need a salary, but raising lecturers' and rectors' salaries by up to Rp 25 million needs to be publicly tested. The plan should be canceled," Muhammad said.
A senior lecturer, Heru Nugroho, said the money to be used for the pay increases should instead be used to fund student activities.
The protesters also observed National Education Day by wearing black armbands to show their concern over the death of solidarity at the university.
They also distributed pamphlets and banners, including one reading: "the people's campus now only memory" and another changing the meaning of BHMN into "boss only thinks of his own salary".
UGM rector Sofian met the protesters briefly before leaving the scene. "I do not sympathize with their action. If they want to find an alternative solution, let us sit down and talk. This is not the way to go about it," Sofian said.
He said the salary increases were aimed at creating a transparent payment system. Previously, a rector was paid Rp 6 million, but with allowances and other things, the take home pay may have reached Rp 30 million, he said. "What the rector receives now is less. Back then, it was not transparent," Sofian said.
In Surabaya, a protest marked National Education Day, with protesting university students and members of the community demanding the government improve the country's education system.
The protesters also demanded the government allocate 20 percent of the state budget for education as well as improve teachers' welfare.