The Independent Campus Program for Higher Education in Indonesia: The Role of Government Support and the Readiness of Institutions, Lecturers and Students

This study seeks to analyze the relationship between the Kampus Merdeka (Independent Campus)
program of Indonesia and the readiness of stakeholders in universities, specifically whether the
latter has a positive influence on implementing the program. The research applied a quantitative
approach, which is suitable when trying to assess the appropriateness of an implemented
educational program, while the analysis was informed by relevant prior research. It was necessary
to learn whether there are internal and external factors support an implementation, so this
research was conducted among private universities in Region IV (West Java and Banten
Provinces) of the Higher Education Service Institutions of Indonesia with a sample of 111
lecturers. Based on the data analysis, the readiness of universities, lecturers, and students, as well
as government support, were found to positively influence the implementation of the Independent
Campus Program. More precisely, the effect revealed by the R2 value was 10.4 percent. Of the
four independent variables considered, the strongest influence came from government support,
with an R2 of 7.7 percent, followed by lecturer readiness (4.7 percent), student readiness (4.7
percent), and campus readiness (3.6 percent). All four of these independent variables therefore
had a significant influence on the implementation of the Independent Campus Program,
suggesting that any such implementation of the program must proceed in line with the
preparedness of the relevant stakeholders. Strong support from the government also seems to be
very important, however, if the Independent Campus Program is to achieve its goal of enhancing
the capacity and quality of higher education in Indonesia.
Keywords: Campus Policy, Education Readiness, Lecturers, Students, Government Support