Political reformation and its impact on library and information science education and practice: A case study of Indonesia during and post-president-Soeharto administration

Abstract

The author discusses library and information science education before and after 1998, the year President Soeharto stepped down. Before 1998, the government centralized policy making. For LIS education, the Ministry of Education through the Directorate General of Higher Education (DGHE), issued a nation-wide curriculum for sarjana or undergraduate programmes, leaving little space for LIS schools to establish additional courses. After 1998, the Directorate General of Higher Education issued minimum requirements for LIS schools with the remaining credit hours to be decided by each institution. Also before 1998, DGHE issued permission to open new LIS schools after reviewing the submitted proposals. Post 1998, any university could open undergraduate and graduate programmes in LIS without DGHE permission even though not all academic requirements are fulfilled. However, LIS schools must be supervised for two years after their programmes begin by an accrediting agency. The centralised policy also influenced course content.