LIS Education and Quality Assurance System in Asia Pacific: Indonesia

Abstract

Although library education in Indonesia began in 1952, the higher education system for LIS education began in 1989 when the government issued the Act of National Education Systems. In 1989, based on the Act of National Education System, the higher education consists of Diploma (professional) and academic (Sarjana, Magister, Doktor) programs (academic program). Diploma program consists of Diploma 1–4 which denotes the year duration someone studying at the tertiary level, e.g., Diploma 3 means he or she attended university education for 3 years geared toward producing ready-to-work human resources. The academic program consists of Sarjana or Strata 1 (equivalent to Bachelor degrees in the UK, the USA, and other countries), Magister or Strata 2 (equivalent to master degrees) and Doktor (Doctorate). Later the act was replaced by the new Act of National Education System in 2003 with amendment on the possibility of someone with an Applied Master degree (continuation of Diploma program) to continue to program Doktor Terapan or Applied Doctorate program. This paper studies the issue on LIS quality assurance systems by various agencies. The first agency related to quality assurances is the National Library of Indonesia (NLI) who acts as the mentor, supervisor, and sometimes evaluator based on the Act no 43, 2007 and indirectly to LIS education; the second is Ministry of Education and Culture who conducted the LIS education, apart from Ministry of Religious Affairs; and the third the Association of Library Association whose function in many countries is accrediting the LIS education and other institutions. The issue of accreditation came in early 1990s as many universities opened LIS undergraduate programs. Another issue is that the Ministry of Manpower issued an edict about librarian certification albeit it does not mention about the accrediting agency. The paper concludes that the quality assurance for LIS education in Indonesia varies; however, it is suggested that the National Accreditation Agency should be responsible for the quality assurance as the Indonesian Library Association is yet to act as a real professional association.