1. Accreditation Comprehensive Review
Evaluation:
“ABEST21 certifies that the School’s educational and research activities generally satisfy accreditation standards. The School’s Kaizen plans are good and quality maintenance and prospects for the improvement of education and research are promising and good. Accreditation commences April 1, 2021 for a five-year period.”
PRT Comprehensive Comments:
The MMP UNIB is a reputable program in Bengkulu, Indonesia. The university management is very supportive of the MMP UNIB accreditation initiative and its efforts in globalizing. The School is working to improve its global presence and increase internationalization in terms of academic curriculum, collaboration, international accreditation, and manpower planning.
The School conducts evaluation and inspections on academic, financial and administrative matters annually through its Gugus Kendali Mutu (Quality Control Cycle) committee. The Committee consists of five faculty members from the MMP UNIB. The School uses the results of the self-evaluation analysis of its academic and financial activities and administration to improve the quality of education, the learning process, and students’ competencies. Series of joint meetings involving all relevant units were conducted to formulate the strategic solution and action plan for improvement.
The mission statement “To produce graduates qualified as adaptive and integrative agents of change in the management of public and private sectors” should indicate the globalization/internationalization as described in the explanation for the staff, students, and general public. The school needs to show evidence/linkage on how the learning goals are aligned with the mission statement – how the knowledge and understanding, intellectual, practical, and managerial skills and attitude can nurture graduates who can be adaptive and integrative agents of change in the management.
The School mentioned that it has translated its mission statement into the program curriculum designed to provide and enhance managerial skills and knowledge. The curriculum features the latest economic, social, and cultural trends such as Industrial Revolution 4.0, FinTech and Digital Commerce and others. In view of the rapid development of the nation, the School needs to develop curriculum that is timely and up-to-date, by introducing courses such as digital commerce, social media marketing, financial technology, global talent development, cross cultural management, and other courses related to mission statement and reflecting globalization and industrial revolution 4.0. However, while courses have been grouped into various Global Values as per Table 13-1, the content and topics of the globalization were not highlighted.
The School has adequate financial sources from tuition fees, government funding and revenue from other businesses. The School may consider finding alternative sources of income for the development and expansion of its academic and research activities.
The School can utilize more digital technology at work to facilitate better communication and digitalization of processes such as course registration. Students have suggested to have more digitalization of the academic and administrative processes as a part of the communication improvement.
The long graduation period due to the time taken for the research project after the completion of the theoretical courses is a hindrance for achieving graduation on time (GOT). PRT suggests having a time frame for the completion of the research project/mini thesis such as 1 year. Any application of extension (e.g. one additional year maximum) would have to be approved by the School or Senate.
There are no major issues pertaining to the admission policy as the processes are complete, well defined and carried out appropriately.
There is no financial support to students who need it as the previous scholarship agreement with STAR-BPKP has ended in 2017. The School is now looking for sponsors – companies who want to utilize their CSR budget to provide financial support to students. So far, student support is mostly related to administrative and academic matters. The school also does not provide any career development and specific consultation on study aboard for it students at the moment.
The School will intensify its efforts to recruit students from the outside of the province of Bengkulu and overseas. A special admission policy for recruiting foreign students is being discussed. There is no academic, financial, or other support for foreign students now.
The School is going to promote the student international program more intensively, and prepare all relevant systems to support it. However, most of the students are not interested in joining the student mobility program due to work commitment.
One of the problems raised by the school was related to the ratio of lecturers and students and unequal distribution of the competencies of lecturers in classes of different specialization. A strategy undertaken by the MMP UNIB is to open a concentration of general management in public sector management.
There is no sabbatical leave policy for faculty members. However, rewards and incentives are in place to encourage faculty members to actively engage in research.
Some faculty members rarely update their course content and materials for discussions and assignments. Some other lecturers keep delivering materials without using interactive methods such as discussion or questions and answers. Faculty members need to constantly update the teaching materials and explore various teaching methods to ensure the learning goals and outcomes are achieved.
The School needs to have more industry exposure via research attachments for staff and students, and enhanced collaboration with the industries. Faculty members are to apply more real content, cases and hand-on experiences in their teaching.
The School should benchmark its program with other universities outside of Bengkulu and ASEAN countries.
The School is also versatile/agile in terms of program delivery during the Covid19 pandemic.
The School claims that its uniqueness lies in the emphasis on government entrepreneurship. It must be clearly explained how the Master of Management program integrates the ‘entrepreneurship’ element in its program.
From the Action Plans laid out for the next three years, the School seems to be aware of what MMP UNIB lacks, and what it takes to achieve its mission and vision. It is great to see that the School has a firm direction in fulfilling these. There is always a room for improvement, and it must be a continuous process. The School has a lot of potential to grow.
2. Good Practice in the Program Management Education
Title:
“Inclusivity towards achieving quality education through life-long learning”
Reasons:
The School has taken many initiatives to:
- Ensure that students who are weak in studies are given assistance in terms of remedial classes.
- Provide an opportunity for working individuals to embrace life-long learning: the School conducts its classes in the Master of Management program during the weekends, i.e. Friday and Saturday.
- Require all lecturers who receive research funding from MMP UNIB to include students in their research and publication.
- Provide adequate infrastructure to create an environment conducive to teaching and learning for both faculty members and students.
3. Matters to be noted
The School needs to ensure that curriculum needs to be always up to date to reflect the mission statement and the changing environment of the management education.
The School needs to constantly monitor students’ academic performance and duration of study.
Communication linkage between students, the School’s management, faculty members and alumni can be further strengthened by forming a student association. There is no mention of such association in the SCR.
Strong and long-term support from the university is a matter that must be underlined to maintain the continuity of the ABEST21 International Accreditation status of MMP UNIB.