Triple Helix in Indonesia: Mission impossible?
Triple Helix in Indonesia: Mission Impossible?
Bambang Soemarwoto, Amsterdam | Tue, 06/16/2009 | Opinion, The Jakarta Post (Triple helix in Indonesia: Mission impossible? - Tue, June 16 2009 - The Jakarta Post)
To conduct research, universities can no longer rely on funding from the government. Commercial sources must also be tapped. Knowledge valorization has become a new emphasis, which demands marketable innovation as the main results of research.
It serves the purpose of not only increasing the profitability of an existing business, but also of starting a new business. The university becomes an entity that directly impacts economic growth, outside and inside the campus. It has manifested itself in new job vacancies (graduate, post-doctoral and professorship positions) and new research facilities.
The traditional hierarchical professor-student relationship has transformed into an employment-like relationship between a research group leader and group members. The leader defines research direction, coordinates research activities and ensures a continuous flow of funding. In return, a group member must produce novelties, not only scientifically, but also commercially, such as a patentable innovation that can be marketed.
The phenomenon of the triple helix emerges when the government recognizes the social and economic benefits of the university-industry interaction, and starts facilitating through pro-innovation policies and research incentives. The triple helix is a model proposed by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (1997) for university-industry-government synergy that emerged at the end of the last century.
The triple helix is characterized by a cross-helix circulation of people. Etzkowitz and Zhou (2007) distinguish it by three modes. First, the unidirectional mode: a reputable expert, for instance, from a company turns into a full-time university professor.
Second, the successive mode: a company's expert becomes a professor; after a significant academic career they move to become a government minister, and finally return to the business sphere as an R&D director at a large company.
Third, the double-life mode, marked by part-time positions: for instance, the capacity of a company's expert is shared with the academic sphere as a part-time professorship.
The triple helix is not without its critics. There are concerns that universities may lose their independence and be transformed from nonprofit (public) to profit-seeking (commercial) organizations. Scientific openness seems to be in conflict with commercial secrecy. While applied research is emphasized, basic research seems to be forgotten.
In fact, the triple helix can be sustained only if universities maintain their nonprofit character, scientific openness and basic research. Basic research is the fuel for applied research. Without basic research, applied research would eventually stop. Scientific openness ensures exchange of ideas between academics, which is essential for innovation. The nonprofit character is required to win the competition of recruiting the most brilliant students.
Hence, the triple helix does not contradict traditional academic values. Not surprisingly, in the world's leading universities, traces of the triple helix are easy to find.
One may then ask, what is the status of the triple helix in Indonesia? Can it exist at all in Indonesia? State Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman has proposed the term ABG (Academic-Business- Government) for a triple helix in Indonesia.
To answer the question, the academic revolutions that took place in the world during the last century should be reviewed. The first revolution saw the addition of research as a task besides teaching, i.e. the transformation from a teaching to a research university. The second revolution is marked by the emergence of the triple helix, i.e. the transformation from a research to an entrepreneurial university.
A successful transformation is characterized by a matured academic atmosphere in the form prior to the transformation. In other words, a good teaching atmosphere is a prerequisite for the success of a research university. It follows that a favorable research atmosphere is required for the success of an entrepreneurial university.
It is noticeable that the notion of an entrepreneurial university is becoming central in discussions on higher education in Indonesia. Let us thus assume that a matured teaching and research atmosphere prevails in most Indonesian universities. Let us now address one important characteristics of the triple helix - the cross-helix circulation of people.
It is not difficult in Indonesia to find an academic with a position in industry or in government. Unfortunately, in most cases it cannot be categorized into one of the above-mentioned modes.
The unidirectional mode is extremely rare in Indonesia, if not totally nonexistent. An example is yet to be found of a company expert who became a full-time professor. The employment condition in Indonesian state universities may not even allow it to happen. The successive mode is therefore also hindered. The stream of people stagnates.
At first glance, the double-life mode has flourished in Indonesia, but this is not true. In the triple helix, a double-life mode is marked by careful planning of time and manpower capacity. On the contrary, in Indonesia there is a strong tendency toward over-commitment with double remuneration and simultaneous career paths. For instance, a full-time professorship is combined with a full-time commitment by a company manager or government official.
The stagnation and over-commitment are obstacles that prohibit the formation of a genuine triple helix. This is partly due to decades of a culture of bureaucratic and underpayment system. Now that the government has advocated the triple helix in Indonesia, the government itself must create innovative ways to break through these obstacles. Only then can a mission impossible become a mission accomplishable.
The author is a resident of the city of Leiden, the Netherlands.
