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 Comments:
PPM School of Management aims to produce graduates who can address the global challenges. In globalizing its education, the School has utilized several initiatives such as referring to the best international practices, international partnerships with leading business schools, and more international exposure for the faculty members.
In humanizing its research and education, the School strengthens its ethical standing and enhances the international experience for its students. Specifically, the School’s curriculum includes Research Ethics and Evaluation of Management Practices. The School also considers soft skills’ development as another important factor in promoting humane leadership. Specifically, the students are exposed to different Leadership courses that emphasize self-development, team-development, and community development. The School aims to enable students to be independent, competent, caring, and responsible learners.
Collaboration with other institutions, local and international, is one of the differentiating strategies of PPM School of Management. The School has introduced several initiatives to improve the collaboration with the industry and the universities. In addition, the School has the standard for the collaboration and partnerships. By having this standard, the collaboration activities become more coordinated as well as beneficial for the parties involved.
In terms of the School’s academic operations, PRT suggests that the Academic Information System should be improved as it has high risk in the manual payment process. In addition, the improved system will be able to reduce costs. These aspects need to be addressed immediately by the School.
The School’s quality improvement processes are done manually, and therefore take a lot of effort and time. However, in this digital era the School must be able to act fast. It is also stated in the SCR report that the School should act faster than the changes in the environment.
The mission statement of the PPM School of Management is reflected in the MM Program. The School collects inputs from its and translates these in the program. However, PRT suggests that the current tagline of the MM Program (“To be an innovative strategic leader”) is updated to include humanizing management education and global perspective. These are important elements, and the students should learn how to respond to the changes in the global environment in more humanized way.
Furthermore, the School’s mission is in line with the industry expectations and the trends of social and cultural globalization. PPM Manajemen and PPM School of Management have shared mission. PPM Manajemen will support the School in pursuing its agenda. The School also uses the mission statement to guide the design of the curriculum. Through high-quality education, students develop hard and soft skills required for their future careers.
Meanwhile, the financial strategies help the School to realize its mission statement. One of the sources of financing is tuition fees. It is commendable that during Covid-19 pandemic the School gave back a part of tuition fee to the students. This practice should be followed by other schools in Asia and other parts of the world.
However, the School must think of some other alternatives in order to sustain its finances. Therefore, creative and innovative ideas about how to generate income for the School are very much required. The School could also use digital platform to deliver training online.
The School is also well-known for its active case study production. Industry-based cases are a good opportunity for the students to practice problem-solving skills in in various contexts. These case studies could become another source of funding for the School, along with training and consulting activities.
The curriculum policy needs to be declared by the School, and must be clearly stated in the document that explains program details and structure, available to both staff and students. The structure of the curriculum must be consistent with the learning goals. The management of the curriculum is very important and it should follow the curriculum policy. The School has its curriculum policy, and the curriculum is designed in line with the learning outcomes.
PPM School has an environment and a guidance system that is conducive to learning and teaching. The School gives the students mentors who can help them develop necessary skills. In the SCR report, it is clearly indicated that the academic performance of students is evaluated fairly, and that grades are calculated in an objective and standardized way in order to maintain the quality level of education.
As the aspiration of the top management of the School is to make it the first-choice management education institution in Indonesia and enhance its reputation in southeast Asia by 2025, the Exchange program for the faculty members with foreign universities is very important, particularly to increase the School’s visibility. Therefore, this strategy is very much required, but currently the School does not have the system to implement it. It is suggested that the School develops a system to promote faculty exchange.
Generally, the School has no issues with its admission policy, the policies and procedures are clearly highlighted. It seems that the School has a clear understanding regarding the admission criteria and potential students. The qualifications of the potential students are in line with the mission statement of the School. There are also no issues with student selection, selection criteria and selection process are clearly defined.
Student incentives are focused on rewarding social contribution and specific achievements. The School reviews the reward system systematically. On the other hand, the School must promote the students’ mobility in line with the globalization agenda. The number of international students must be increased. Local students must be encouraged to be involved in the exchange program. The School must think very seriously on how to increase the international student enrolment. This activity is very important if the School wants to become globalized and seen as the first-choice management education institution in Indonesia, and recognized in Southeast Asia by 2025.
Generally, the School has the faculty members with various outstanding achievements in research or education, skills, knowledge and experience in their field of study. However, teaching load of the faculty members is one of the main factors that affects their educational and research activities. PRT were made to understand that faculty members in the School are given various workloads and they must adapt. If the School could plan strategically in terms of teaching load of the faculty members, this could produce more achievements in research and publications. The School should limit the number of courses that the faculty members teach, and ensure a balanced workload for supporting staff. Ideally, the School must make the faculty members feel satisfied with their workload. Currently, the teaching load for most of the staff is heavy and limits their ability to do research and publish.
In general, the educational infrastructure of the School is considered sufficient. Most of the facilities are in good condition. The information was gathered based on the online peer review visit.
Globalization of Educational Infrastructure aspect of the School is considered appropriate. Overall, facilities for the students with different backgrounds seem to be in line with the standard. The facilities are considered adequate given the overall number of students at the School.
2. Good Practice in the Program Management Education
Title:
“Business Case Approach as a Form of Educational Tool”
Reasons:
The School is a well-known and active producer of the case studies from different industries. They enrich the teaching and learning process. This feature distinguishes PPM School of Management from other universities in Indonesia.
3. Matters to be noted
There are several issues that need to be noted by the School in order to provide better education. These issues relate to internal quality assurance, securing sufficient funding to realize the School’s mission, students’ exchange program with other universities in other countries, faculty members’ issues, and a few issues that deal with educational infrastructure.
Generally, the internal quality assurance requires more focus on reducing risks associated with errors in financial records. PRT recommends that the School introduces a new digital system of records. This requires certain amount of investment, but this investment is for a long term.
In addition, the School needs to secure funding. It hard for the School to increase the tuition fees due to Covid-19. However, the School’s funding also comes from PPM Manajemen. Due to the same Covid-19 issue, the funding from PPM Manajemen will also decrease.
In terms of student mobility, collaboration for student exchange with foreign universities is now limited. Therefore, the School must act to speed up the facilitation of agreements and student exchange. On the other hand, the School should increase the number of foreign faculty members who are permanent staff members. This is because the Exchange program system for the faculty members with foreign universities is not implemented yet. The review system schemes for the faculty exchange program with foreign universities does not exist yet, and this requires bold actions from the School.
The School has provided significant amount of funding and incentives in order to strengthen the faculty members’ knowledge through training, seminars and conferences. However, the faculty members tend to choose development programs based on their own personal interests, and therefore current faculty development system does not fully correspond with the School’s objectives.
Finally, in terms of educational infrastructure, the facilities are appropriate. Mostly infrastructure is in good condition and provides a good learning environment for the students (based on the online peer review visit). However, the speed of the Learning Management System (LMS) is relatively slow, and there is a limited number of laptops for the administrative staff, especially for those who work from home. Facilities for the students with different cultural and religious backgrounds seem to be also appropriate.