Accreditation Results 2020

1. ABEST21 Accreditation Result

ABEST21 Accreditation Result of the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Lampung is as follows:
“The School’s educational and research activities have generally met ABEST21 Management Accreditation Standards and the quality maintenance and improvement of education and
research in the aforementioned academic unit are promising and good.”
Accreditation commences April 1, 2020 for a five-year period.

2. The Peer Review Team

3. The Peer Review Schedule

4. Comprehensive Review

PRT-FEB:
All three PRT teams had the same good impressions on FEB UNILA, including its valuable contributions and the strong support it is getting from the university. The strategic goals of FEB are well aligned with those of the university, and the procedures of quality assurance are well developed.
FEB UNILA’s presence in the region is strong. The students and graduates are mostly satisfied. Local reputation seems high.
However, in order to be ranked as one of the top ten business schools in Indonesia, FEB UNILA must increase national presence. The efforts should be focused on strategic initiatives and action plans should be more concreate.
PRT-Economics:
The School meets most standards. However, there are some areas for further improvement, especially in the area of internationalization and research as well as publication productivity.
PRT-Management:
FEB UNILA has the vision and the mission derived from those of the university. These vision and mission are then cascaded down to the department levels. With the desire to become one of the 10 best business schools in Indonesia, FEB UNILA has also implicitly included a desire to produce ethical and professional graduates who are capable of responding to global challenges.
FEB UNILA has a good quality assurance system. There is clarity of procedure, application and discipline to comply with it. The School has been improving in many aspects and it has been getting great support from the university. Improvement initiatives and its targets with performance ratings are developed well in accordance with the requirements of the university.
The major concern for the PRT members is that there are many, maybe too many improvement initiatives, but at the same time “issues to be improved” deal with maintaining or sustaining current systems. For instance, in Chapter 1: Internal Quality Assurance of the section III of Self-Check/Self-Evaluation, the report states that “issue to be improved is to maintain current system”, and similar expressions appears in every criterion. This tendency continues to the last chapter. It is not easy to understand that there are so many improvement initiatives whereas issues to be improved are to maintain such and such current system or endeavors. By the way, many of the improvement initiatives start with the verb “maintain,” too.
The other concern is the vagueness of action plans. In the section 4 “The School’s Action Plans for three years,” there is only one description under the “New Action Plan” for each improvement initiative with target year. For instance:
MM-FEB Unila’s Improvement Initiatives:
Build MOU or partnership with private companies, state owned companies, government institutions
New Action Plans:
Developing cooperation with private
Time Frame Based of Priority Initiatives: 2022
In this case, how to develop cooperation with private companies should have been specifically described for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
If this is the way of making action plans university-wide, it is a good time for FEB UNILA to take action for the improvement.
In terms of ambition to be known as a business school that excels in the field of entrepreneurship and SME development, FEB UNILA has shown good efforts. The emphasis on research, entrepreneurship and CSR initiatives is embedded in the programs. The school has made a lot of effort to provide students with facilities and support so that they can develop their talent.
Physical facilities of the school are also very good. There is a good effort to improve the English skills of lecturers, staff, and students, too.
However, considering the goal to become one of the 10 best business schools in Indonesia, the school should define its unique selling point. The school could make entrepreneurship their uniqueness as compared to other schools. Then the school could focus its efforts in education and research on this. For example, Mission statement can reflect “Entrepreneurship” and curriculum should be reviewed and expanded for this end. Currently, the school has not explicitly put this on the website or other communication media. With focused efforts, the school could again increase the number of applicants for the Undergraduate program.
It will be also helpful for FEB UNILA to establish a benchmark with universities in Java which have successful business schools with emphasis on developing entrepreneurship. For example, to improve the quality of lecturers’ abilities in mastering business incubator methods and mentoring entrepreneurs.
As a part of continuous improvement, the faculty members have to increase the quantity and quality of their research, staff development programs should be enhanced, collaboration for long-term joint research needs to be built, the number of visiting professors and international students needs to be increased, curriculum needs to be updated more often according to the technological and environmental changes, and so on.
For that purpose it is better that the SCR is prepared with evidence/supporting data. For example, instead of saying “we offered staff development programs,” the list of programs with titles, dates, the number of people attended can be attached. During the interview with the staff members, they appreciated the training courses such as English and Service Excellence.
PRT-Accounting:
During the accreditation process, Accounting UNILA showed its seriousness in preparing the PRT visit. College leaders were present during the interview and gave good answers. Most of the answers submitted did not have a strong evidence base, because when asked to show some evidentiary documents the UNILA did not provide these. The strategy to be implemented by Accounting UNILA has a clear foundation, but the performance indicators presented should indicate a clear and sustainable PDCA process.
The peer review team believes that Accounting UNILA can implement the action plan that has been prepared, but with a number of reviews, and also emphasizing clear objectives, and with appropriate performance indicators.

5. Good Practice in the FEB Education

PRT-FEB:

1) Title of Good Practice in the FEB Education

“Research and Education developing the economic structure of SME’s”

2) Reason for selecting the title stated above

One of the unique features in the School’s education and research is the collaborative research empowerment through the center for research and publications. The center plays a significant role in managing, facilitating and FEB UNILA is practicing and improving according to the ABEST21 standards. Certain issues with strategic importance, such as globalization and research, should be improved with focused efforts. Action plans should specify major actions to be taken for important improvement issues.

PRT-Economics:

• Learning outcome, curriculum and teaching materials continuing review. Humanizing the school’s research and education as well as the strategies for quality improvement.
• The school demonstrates humanizing approach to research and education. The interactions between lecturers and between staff members have been well established and managed. Also, the students are comfortable with all humanized academic system and facilities. Regarding the strategies for quality improvement, the school has a good system that should be reviewed periodically to see the impact.

PRT-Management:

In addition to the good practices we described in the “1. PRT Comprehensive Review”, the following two points must be emphasized.

• The school has strong regional influence.
• The school is supporting entrepreneurial activities and career development for students.

• In Lampung and surrounding provinces, FEB UNILA is clearly very prominent in terms of higher education and efforts to advance SMEs. FEB UNILA has many graduates from the Province of Lampung and surrounding areas, who remain in Lampung to become entrepreneurs or business persons to advance the local economies. FEB UNILA also showed efforts to improve the quality of SMEs in Lampung Province.
• The school has a Learning Business Center (investment gallery, business simulation software and module, soft skill studios, Tax studio, CPA Studio, and mini bank) and Entrepreneurship Development Center (food market, FEB lounge, FEB Mart, sport and art entertainment). Using these facilities, students can carry out entrepreneurship activities in an ethical way. The students can not only learn entrepreneurship in class but also practice it.

It is a common practice for American and European companies to conduct Behavioral Event Interview at hiring to recognize demonstrated behaviors in order to analyze superior competencies. Students who have shown good initiatives, teamwork, learning from failure, and so forth, will be highly evaluated. From this perspective, it is advisable to arrange internship for Degree programs (currently it is only available for Diploma level).
While our information is limited because we visited Learning Business Center and Entrepreneurship Development Center during the campus tour, there are also some concerns such as:

• How to obtain patents for products or services invented by students or in collaboration with SME
• How to establish good relations with providers to secure raw materials.

PRT-Accounting:

• Title of Good Practice in the FEB Education
  Leadership plays a big role in the success of institutional strategy. Accounting UNILA has shown good practices in terms of leadership.
• Reason for selecting the title stated above
  Good practices in the accreditation process in accounting UNILA is the support of the excellent leadership and staff. Directions given to staff by leaders can be elaborated in a clear work process. Even though the staff seemed to be unable to speak English well, they were able to work well.

The resources owned by UNILA are very helpful in the process of achieving the expected goals. This will encourage UNILA to adapt to the international work environment. Empowerment of existing resources must be supported by the ability of institutions to understand the process and achievement of objectives. The action plan that is developed is quite feasible, but requires explicit activities aimed to achieve the objectives.

6. Matters to be noted

PRT-FEB:

Accelerating change in education
Professor Lynda Gratton of London Business School asserts that education industry is relatively conservative and elitism and selectivity are seen to be crucial in bestowing an external market value. Of course, educational institutions can change but only gradually and slowly. Therefore technological innovation and extending longevity of people create substantial threats and opportunities to education, especially in high education in the near future.
Professor Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School argues that technology makes education ripe for ‘disruptive innovation,’ and that this will have a positive impact on lifelong education. Investments in digital innovations would transform the industry, with online learning and certifications for observed competencies. The emphasis in education will shift from learning inputs to learning outputs. In the past, hours of study and number of credits to get a diploma mattered. Now, developments of competencies and learning outcomes matter.
New types of educational institutions such as Khan Academy and Udacity are emerging and improving the quality of education very rapidly. With video lectures and AI coach, students can learn basic concepts, knowledge, and skills more effectively than through traditional teaching. Even some big software companies are starting to offer training programs for general public and are trying to recruit high potentials.
We must prepare for these accelerating changes and take concreate actions.
I, Shigeta, met with Dean Ilian Mihov of INSEAD in November 2015 in Tokyo. He said INSEAD had just started to offer online programs. I explained him the advantages and things to keep in mind in E-Learning. Now, INSEAD is offering a number of online programs for executive educations and free webinars for its alumni. For example, as an alumnus I received the invitational emails from INSEAD for Lifelong Learning in September 2019. INSEAD moved swiftly.
The school can enhance its alumni services using new technologies as well.
Many business schools across the world are now offering online programs with a certification, for instance in data analytics, digital transformation, global leadership, etc. We do not have abundant resources to develop high quality courses for online learning, but we can collaborate with other educational institutions in order to compete in the rapidly changing world.
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

PRT-Economics:

Among the matters to be noted are:

• Research funds should be increased
• Publication productivity should be improved
• Sabbatical leave for faculty members should be implemented
• Internships for students should be promoted
• Promotion to attract international students should be intensified
• Content of the website should be improved.

PRT-Management:

Definition and evaluation of competencies
As described above, the companies are using the competencies for hiring and selecting people. They look into the demonstrated behaviors, i.e., actual conduct, actions, and talk. There are competency models for different jobs. For example, according to Lyle Spencer’s “Competence at Work” published by Wiley in 1993, the desirable competencies for entrepreneurs are:

• Initiative
  • Does things before being asked or forced to by events
  • Acts to extend the business into new areas, products, or services
• Sees and Acts on Opportunities
  • Sees and acts on new business opportunities
  • Seizes unusual opportunities to obtain financing, land, work space, or assistance
• Persistence
  • Takes repeated or different actions to overcome an obstacle
  • Takes action in the face of a significant obstacle
• Concern for High Quality of Work
  • States a desire to produce or sell a top or better quality product or service
  • Compares own work or company’s work favorably to that of others
• Self-Confidence
  • Expresses confidence in his or her own ability to complete a task or meet a challenge
  • Sticks with his or her own judgment in the face of opposition or early lack of success
  • Does something that he or she says is risky
• Monitoring
  • Develops or uses procedures to ensure that work is completed or that work meets standards of quality
  • Personally supervises all aspects of a project
• Recognizing the Importance of Business Relationships
  • Sees interpersonal relationships as a fundamental business resource
  • Places long-term goodwill over short-term gain in a business relationship
  • Emphasizes importance of maintaining cordiality or correct behavior at all times with the customer
  • Acts to build rapport or friendly relationships with customer.
    There may be many definitions, but in any case it is advisable to study the competencies that the companies are actually using for the hiring and selection. The school’s definition of competencies in the SCR seems quite different.

PRT-Accounting:

Greater attention should be given to the ability of lecturers and staff in achieving the expected strategic goals. Even with large resources, if you do not have a measurable performance strategy it will be difficult to implement an action plan.
Some good standards will certainly support the achievement of poor standards. Utilization of resources must be efficiently directed to achieve the action plan objectives without negating good standards.