Jakarta – The House of Representatives is deliberating a bill the government says will improve the quality of the country's universities, but which the schools fear will commercialize education.

According to the bill, the role of university foundations will be absorbed by a board of trustees. Foundations will have only 49 percent of the vote at the board of trustees.

The bill is mandated by Article 53 of the 2003 law on the national education system, which deals mainly with the establishment of legal entities, such as foundations, to run schools.

Clause 1 of the article says these legal entities can be established by the government or outside parties, while clause 2 stipulates the entities must provide educational services to students.

Clause 3 stipulates the legal entities are not for profit and can manage their finances independently.

The bill has foundations managing universities concerned as foundations would be detached from the schools.

"Our institution is facing internal and external obstacles. Internally, we still need more qualified lecturers, proper infrastructure and a better remuneration system," chairman of the Atma Jaya Foundation, J.B. Kristiadi, said Saturday during the inauguration of F.G. Winarno as the new rector of Atma Jaya University in Jakarta.

"While for external problems, we have to deal with a new paradigm. Universities are supposed to be autonomous," he said. "Foundations should not turn their universities into their money-making machines."

Kristiadi said there was a general misperception that universities were making money for their foundations, instead of the other way around.

Other critics say the bill will lead to the commercialization of education in Indonesia, as the bill allows two legal educational entities.

The first is a non-profit foundation which is allowed to have as much as 25 percent of the profits, and the second is a for-profit legal entity which is entitled.

These critics believe the bill, if passed, would encourage businesses to set up educational foundations with the main goal of making a profit.

However, the government has dismissed such concerns, and says the bill will encourage entrepreneurs to set up foundations and other bodies to improve the quality of education.

Director general of higher education at the National Education Ministry, Satryo Soemantri Brodjonegoro, said the bill would not commercialize universities.

He said the non-profit principle for universities would remain intact, especially for state-run universities. "Instead, the policy will free the universities from state bureaucracy," he said.

A number of state-run universities, including the University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Gadjah Mada University and the University of North Sumatra, have transformed themselves into state-owned legal entities to increase their competitiveness by freeing themselves from government bureaucracy. (rff)