University Student Perspectives on Collective Action through Social-Media Activity on Campus Democracy

Abstract

Campus democracy is useful for creating a condition that allows all groups within the university (students, rectors, teaching staff, employees, and workers) to have equal rights in formulating policies, and the orientation of the implementation of education in tertiary institutions. However, implementing democracy in educational contexts, particularly in Indonesia, is still hindered by obstacles visible through the presence of some issues with democratic principles being violated. The purpose of this study was to examine and provide an overview of university student perspectives on collective action through social-media activity on campus democracy. This study utilizes qualitative research methods by deploying questionnaires, and uses documentation as data collection techniques. It studies the students of one university in Lampung as the subject of the research. The data collection was performed at different time intervals since depth comprehension through questionnaires is required in this study. The results indicated the importance of social media for students in campus democracy, one of which is to cultivate the student’s critical awareness of events that occur on campus. This refers to not only political collective action but also social collective action as well. Given the limitations of this study which only used students from one department on one campus, the researchers hope that further research with a similar topic in the future can expand this type of research to not only include students, but also intra-community interactions, and not only on a scale of one room.
 Keywords: Campus’ Democracy, Collective Action, Students’ Perspectives, Social Media