Professors Born Out of Joki
A professorial candidate should deliver a presentation before a team of peers in his/her academic discipline. I believe asking a professorial candidate to do this is nothing extraordinary.
The WhatsApp group of the Academic Rank Assessment Central Team was stirred by the news some time ago about a consulting firm offering services to accelerate the process for attaining full professorship.
As is the case with consulting firms, this one was also bold enough to make a promise: a money-back guarantee in the event that a professorship was not granted. The firm also offered bonuses for published articles.
Is the rank of professor regarded so lowly in Indonesia? Before, the terms joki and gacok (substitutes or doubles) applied only to students. Now these terms have entered the highest ranks of the academic domain, the rank of professor. Our country has indeed lost everything in the academic arena, including character.
As a professional lecturer since 1987, I am experienced in overseeing the state university entrance exam (UMPTN) at Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, as I have been assigned by the rector to serve as UMPTN supervisor almost every year.
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Several days before the exam, all supervisors receive training. This involves formalities like how examinees should fill in their names and sign the answer sheets, as well as informal matters like how to detect potentially dishonest examinees.
As I have taken the training for several years, I am aware of the increasingly sophisticated tricks employed by potential university students. In fact, stories abound of cunning students being found out. Several gacok or joki have even been caught during the UMPTN.
Gacok or joki are people who are illicitly employed to help prospective students pas the UMPTN. They significantly harm the principle of fair competition. This is because with gacok, who are not academically inclined, can defeat smart students.
The consequences of the practice are also far-reaching and greatly harm our nation. Students who undeservedly pass their exam can legally become whatever they want to be: civil servants, soldiers, political party leaders, legal consultants and so forth. They will find it difficult, both mentally and morally, to perform their jobs. This is because it is hard to build something appropriate and beneficial on a morally defunct foundation.
Supriyanto
Professorial requirements
Since professors are entitled to honorary and professional allowances, their salaries have grown much bigger than those of senior lecturers. It only takes one more step for senior lecturers to become professors. Are the requirements for attaining a professorship very tough? No. The candidate must have a doctoral degree and published an article in a reputable international journal (JIB).
Many lecturers have complained since the requirement to have an internationally published article (as the lead author) was implemented, although it is mandatory that only one article is published in an international journal. This requirement is, in fact, not difficult to fulfill, not overburdening, and is very logical and reasonable, because based on the Higher Education National Standards (SN Dikti) a doctoral degree (S3) is also required to publish an article in a JIB.
Only one article in a JIB and they can attain the status of professor, with a big salary and high standing!
As one of a professor’s duties includes the capacity to provide guidance to doctoral students, it is logical that a candidate is first required to publish at least one article in JIB before they are granted a professorship. As a matter of fact, the requirement for publishing one article in an international journal is too lenient, because the SN Dikti also requires doctoral students to publish an article in a JIB.
For professorial candidates who find it burdensome to publish an article in an international journal, this will certainly be a very tough test. Only one article in a JIB and they can attain the status of professor, with a big salary and high standing! This is of course a beautiful dream that joki or gacok wishing to benefit from illegal business opportunities have realized. Now, they are openly operating their business.
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Unlike the gacok hired by UMPTN examinees, no one dares confront gacok hired by professorial candidates to write articles for publication in JIB, because they are usually senior lecturers one step below attaining a full professorship as well as institutional colleagues.
There are many cases of this illicit practice at universities that have not been settled. For instance, several plagiarism cases have not been resolved, because at universities we assume that all lecturers are committed to upholding high moral standards so that even if there is a plagiarism case, we tend to avert our eyes, dissociate ourselves and erase them from our memories.
Lecturers prefer to pretend ignorance. This is not because we approve of plagiarism, but rather because we feel ashamed about discussing it. As it is a taboo, we even feel it improper to talk about it. Lecturers in Indonesia are very unassuming.
This humility is exploited by gacok and shameless professorial candidates. These malicious candidates are well aware of the psychology of the lecturers who assess the academic rank at the faculty and institutional levels.
These mean deeds so easily escape detection at faculty and institutional levels. Meanwhile, this practice is hard to detect at the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry, because assessors of academic rank have no idea about the credibility of the professorial candidates universities nominate. Besides, it is impossible for assessors to suspect professorial candidates who are their own colleagues.
Who works as gacok?
While UMPTN gacok are usually senior students at state universities with outstanding grades, those that serve professorial candidates are usually junior lecturers who are highly productive in research and writing.
So far, no cases have surfaced of professors utilizing the services of gacok to publish academic articles. However, we can suspect and detect that there are from several facts.
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What are the characteristics or indicators of someone who should be suspected of using a gacok to attain their professorship? There are at least three indicators. First, the candidate has never conducted research on the subject of the article that has been published in a JIB. His research concerns A, for instance, but he publishes something about B when he has no expertise in B.
Second, before publishing an article about B in a JIB, the professorial candidate should have published research papers and other articles about B in accredited national journals and other local publications. In this way, the expertise of this professor can be traced by the existing bibliography.
Third, after becoming a professor, this joki professor stops actively publishing his work in JIB.
What’s to be done?
In developed countries, professors chair the highest academic governing bodies. Therefore, when a university wants to grant the academic rank of professor, it advertises the recruitment of professors.
Their selection is made from among a number of candidates on the basis of their records in research, publications and so on. In general, 3-5 professorial candidates are shortlisted. These candidates are then asked to present and hold (question-and-answer) discussions in their academic discipline. The final selection is made from the shortlisted candidates who are deemed to fulfill the university’s requirements for a full professorship. It is indeed a very tight and meticulous selection process.
Syamsul Rizal
In Indonesia, although we have agreed that the requirements for a professorship include one article published in JIB as the lead author, in my opinion, a professorial candidate should deliver a presentation before a team of peers in his/her academic discipline. I believe asking a professorial candidate to do this is nothing extraordinary.
Syamsul Rizal, Professor at Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, and the Academic Rank Assessment Central Team
This article was translated by Aris Prawira.
