A Deficit of Professors

One of the most frequently discussed issues in connection with our world of higher education is the number of professors. The ratio of our professors to lecturers is still too low, at less than 10 percent.

As stated by Science and Technology director general Ali Ghufron of the Research and Technology and Higher Education Ministry, our professors still number only 5,389. This is much smaller than the number of our lecturers of about 260,000. With 22,000 programs of study throughout Indonesia, there should be at least 22,000 professors, assuming that one program of study has one professor.

We are short of professors. But is it true that the number of professors is an important indicator of an institute of higher learning?