Improving quality of higher education; lesson learned from Quality of Undergraduate Education project

The Quality Undergraduate Education (QUE) project was initiated in 1996, commenced in 1997 and completed by September 2003. The project was funded by both the Government of Indonesia and World Bank and considered as a pioneering project scheme for improving the quality of undergraduate education in Indonesia. The project has primary objective of improving the quality of undergraduate education in meeting the demand of national as well as global market through the improvement of Relevance, Academic Atmosphere, Internal Management and Organization, Sustainability as well as Efficiency and Productivity or popularly known as RAISE. The awards were made in three rounds of free for all competition providing five-year developments grants. Each round competition involves a three stage peer review process: initial proposal, full proposal and site evaluation. The QUE fund has been utilized to support 46 study programs which are spread across 11 public institutions. The analysis on the quality of incoming students reveals that these grantees are amongst the best study programs in the countries. The rigorous monitoring and evaluation processes involving national as well as international peers clearly reveal that the project has been by and large successfully implemented where desirable outputs, outcomes and impacts are generally met. Considerable outcomes are primarily apparent in terms of improved external efficiency indicated by graduates capacity in meeting the job market in country as well as overseas, more efficient and productive internal process demonstrated by shortened length of study, improved GPA etc. During the period of this project significant institutional capacity buildings are particularly apparent amongst the higher education institutions receiving grants. In additions, various good practices engendered by the QUE have also improved the overall academic atmosphere especially at the grantee's level.