A Milestone for Liberal Arts Education in Indonesia

Abstract

This article seeks to draw attention to a milestone in the development of Indonesian higher education, and to offer some evaluation of its significance. This milestone is the government’s new strategy regarding General Education in higher education institutions, which is laid out in an Indonesian-language book published by the department of education, and is presently being enacted across a range of higher education institutions.

The approach taken is to offer a critical summary of the book, and then to focus on one instance of the enactment of its principles, as evidenced in two recent studies regarding the perspectives of stakeholders at an Indonesian university.

In the light of this, it is suggested that the continued enactment of General Education in Indonesia will likely be accompanied by a painstaking negotiation between utilitarian and non-utilitarian impulses.

This contributes to a growing picture of the implementation of liberal arts-style education in Asian settings.