Prabowo Forms the Republic of Indonesia University, This is the Task and Participants

JAKARTA - The government has established the University of the Republic of Indonesia or URI as a new educational institution to prepare future leaders in government and state-owned enterprises.

URI Governor Marshal TNI (Ret.) Donny Ermawan Taufanto said the institution would connect high school, college, and training levels for state civil servants and BUMN employees.

"This is all related to education, training, and preparing human resources for the future, both for the government and SOEs," said Donny after being inaugurated by President Prabowo Subianto at the Presidential Palace Complex, Jakarta, Wednesday, July 22.

The government plans to build 10 URI. The institution will be under the National Education Management Agency led by Donny.

The agency will oversee three institutions, namely the management of the Garuda Flagship School, the management of colleges and universities, and the State Administration Agency or LAN.

LAN which has been focusing on training ASN will get additional tasks to train state-owned enterprise employees.

According to Donny, the educational track is prepared starting from Garuda Flagship School students, URI students, to prospective government and BUMN employees. The material includes managerial skills, character, integrity, honesty, national insight, and patriotism.

URI is different from the National Resilience Agency or Lemhannas. Lemhannas still handles education on national resilience, while URI focuses on academic education and managerial capabilities.

URI students will obtain academic degrees. The government has temporarily opened the undergraduate level, while the master's program is planned to follow.

"Use the title later, it's a university," said Donny.

All students will receive scholarships. The number of faculties and study programs is still being arranged. URI will also work with a number of prestigious universities abroad.

The teaching staff can come from within and outside the country, including lecturers from other universities.

The first URI program has been running since May 20 through the Presidential Program for Future Leaders or P3MD. A total of 399 new state-owned enterprise employees have participated in the first training.

Donny said the program was not mandatory and was not an absolute requirement for promotion. However, participants who attended it would gain added value in career development.

The URI campus is planned to be built in Cikasungka, North Bogor, on the land of an oil palm plantation owned by PTPN which is no longer productive. Meanwhile, the URI management will use two floors at the BUMN office on Jalan Medan Merdeka Selatan, Jakarta.

The URI budget is entirely sourced from the state budget, but the amount is still being arranged.