JAKARTA - The establishment of the Republic of Indonesia University (URI) has attracted wide attention, especially among observers. Public policy expert from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Agustinus Subarsono said the establishment of a new university must be free from political interference.
Deputy Minister of Defense Donny Ermawan was inaugurated by President Prabowo Subianto as the Governor of the Republic of Indonesia University (URI) in Jakarta, Wednesday (22/7/2026). President Prabowo also appointed Yos Sunitiyoso as his deputy.
The inauguration of the leadership of the Indonesian University Institution is in accordance with the president's desire to prepare Indonesian leaders.
"We want to strengthen institutions, especially our educational institutions, to prepare candidates for national leaders who will run the government, both in the ASN, civil servants, and in our SOEs. So there will be two officials who will be inaugurated this afternoon," said the Minister of State Secretary, Prasetyo Hadi.
However, the formation of this URI raises questions among the public, ranging from the legal basis, governance, to the division of roles with existing educational institutions.
Expert in State Administration at the University of Indonesia (UI) Lina Miftahul said the legal basis of the URI was not clear. If state universities are generally formed through Government Regulation (PP) or Presidential Regulation (Perpres), while the URI is only marked by a Presidential Decree (Keppres) which regulates the appointment of its leadership.
"What is the legality of its establishment, PP or not? If this presidential decree is like this, then it cannot be equated with a university as usual," said Lina, quoting Kompas.
Without Academic StudyAt the inauguration event last week, Donny explained that the formation of URI was based on President Prabowo's concern for human resources who were ready to sit in the government.
"So this President is very concerned with human resources, especially for future Indonesian leaders in particular. Well, this is what he wants, good education at the elementary, junior high, high school, college, and also in the government," said Donny.
This campus is also expected to produce future leaders of the nation in government or State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and can integrate education.
On the same occasion, Donny also explained that the formation of URI was adopted from the French government's national public service institute, the Institut National du Service Public (INSP).
URI will also focus on strengthening science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) based education to support the development of human resources towards the Golden Indonesia 2045.
In its official website, URI is referred to as a national leadership education center that is projected to prepare superior human resources to fill various strategic positions, ranging from government, state civil servants (ASN), and employees of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN).
However, education expert Itje Chodidjah questioned the purpose of the establishment of URI. According to him, the establishment of URI was carried out without any academic and contextual studies, as if Indonesia did not have a university that prepared for the service.
"What are we lacking?" said Itje.
He reminded that Indonesia currently has various trainings to Lemhanas to prepare prospective state officials and prospective civil servants. Likewise, with the available universities, there are various majors.
"We have a service school in almost every agency. Then our university. What kind of major is there that doesn't exist," said Itje. "In my opinion, this is like rain in the middle of the day. Those who seem to have nothing suddenly have the University of the Republic of Indonesia. And because it's called a university, it's definitely under the rules and regulations of the Ministry of Education, so, is there anything there," he continued.
Overlapping RolesSince being inaugurated as president, Prabowo Subianto has made a number of breakthroughs in the field of education, including creating a number of new entities such as the People's School, to the Garuda School, which is the government's flagship high school program to produce global talent in the field of science and technology. This situation, according to observers, makes the direction of national education increasingly unclear.
UI Administration Expert Lina Miftahul said the formation of the URI did not have a clear legal basis. In addition, the role of the URI is also considered to overlap with other educational institutions, considering that Indonesia already has several educational institutions with similar functions.
Just name the Institute of Internal Government (IPDN), which prepares regional government apparatus, the State Administration Agency (LAN), which develops the competence of the civil servant (ASN), and the National Resilience Agency (Lemhannas), which organizes strategic leadership education for state officials.
Therefore, according to Lina, the government needs to clarify the division of tasks and coordination relationships between institutions so that there is no overlap in authority and accountability.
Meanwhile, public policy expert from UGM Agustinus Subarsono emphasized that the formation of URI should not merely be a legitimacy of government policies. New universities, he said, must be built as autonomous institutions, based on academic studies, and free from political intervention.
According to Subarsono, the debate regarding the establishment of URI is not merely about the need or not of a new university.
"But will the new university be an autonomous institution entity in the development of science and technology, or just a legitimacy of government policies and serve the political whims of the ruling regime," said Subarsono.
A higher education institution, according to Subarsono, will be strong if it is born through a bottom-up process, so that it has strong academic, political, and sociological support from the community. On the other hand, the top-down approach actually makes the university an entity that is foreign to its academic environment.
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