Freedom Campus and the Soul of ‘Universitas’

The current crisis experienced by higher education institutions is the result of a wider global transformation. Almost all fields in the world today are being increasingly forced to submit to economic logic.

That the autonomy of lecturers has been eroded was one of the issues that were raised at a discussion of the Association of Catholic Universities of Indonesia (Aptik) themed "Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM): Dari Filosofis hingga Praktis” (Independent learning, independent campus: From Philosophy to practice", held on 7 May 2021 at Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta (7/5/2021).

Lecturers are no longer the only determinants in producing learning materials or implementing quality and curriculums at higher education institutions (PT). They have to relinquish some of their duties to other higher education stakeholders, especially parties that control the world of work, namely the government, the world of business and industry (DUDI) and other community groups.