President University (PresUniv) collaborates with the Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, six national universities and three foreign universities to form a consortium of Indonesia Higher Education Leader (iHiLead) to support the implementation of the Merdeka Belajar-Kampus Merdeka program (MBKM) which is “Independent Campus, Freedom to Learn” program.
The iHiLead Kick Off Meeting was held virtually attended by Prof. Ir. Nizam. M.Sc., DIC., Ph.D., Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, HE Vincent Piket, MA, PhD, Ambassador of the European Union to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, and David Dawson. PhD, FCIPD., SHEA., Director of Master of Arts Higher Education Leadership and Management from the University of Gloucestershire (UoG), United Kingdom, who is also the project leader.
The iHiLead consortium aims to improve the quality of higher education in Indonesia through leadership reforms in higher education. Through this reform, it is hoped that university graduates will be increasingly able to answer the needs of the Business and Industrial.
Prof. Nizam explained that the Ministry of Education and Culture has created an MBKM program to improve the quality of higher education in accordance with industry needs. In order to make this program a success, it is necessary to increase leadership capacity in Indonesian universities.
“Leadership transformation is very important. Especially at this time where change is happening dynamically. For that, leaders are required to always learn, be creative and adapt to change,” said Prof. Nizam. He highly appreciated the iHiLead consortium which focuses on leadership transformation.
Dawson in his report explained that this project aims to help higher education leaders to find out their skills and how to develop their skills. He explained the leaders here include the rector, vice-rector, deans and heads of study programs, other academic leaders, senior management, including leaders in non-academic fields.
Meanwhile, Piket appreciates the collaboration between universities and the government. He also emphasized, “Higher education must be able to solve the needs of the community. The success of higher education depends on how they can listen to the community.”