Building a Support Model for University Students with Disabilities in Indonesia

Universities in Indonesia are legally required to have a disability service unit^[1] to support students with disabilities, but with a shortage of staff who are able to operate these units, a framework needs to be built to support the studies and graduation of students with disabilities.

This project is primarily being carried out by Indonesia’s Pijar Foundation^[2] with participation by the Asia Human Development Center,^[3] and is using Japanese expertise to implement a support model at base universities that will lead to policy proposals and the framework being rolled out at other universities.

Officially, universities in Indonesia are required to have a disability service unit, but in fact only roughly 100 of the country’s approximately 4,000 universities have them, and their operation and position within universities are still developing.

The government’s information portal shows a total of 220 students with disabilities enrolled at 71 universities, but the preliminary survey confirmed 98 unregistered students with disabilities at one university alone, meaning that identifying the actual situation with regard to students with disabilities is an issue.

Even at universities that are providing support, the units focus on securing opportunities for admission and creating basic environments, and are unable to provide sufficient highly individualized support that is essential for students to continue learning.

Through this white paper, The Nippon Foundation considered issues and how they could be resolved with the aim of creating a framework to support university students with disabilities in their learning and graduation.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology has identified higher education for students with disabilities as a priority issue, and certain universities including Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University and the State University of Jakarta are taking the lead in addressing the issue.

This project is primarily being carried out by the Pijar Foundation, which has expertise in human resource training and policy proposals, with participation from the Asia Human Development Center, which has expertise and networks related to resolving issues for persons with disabilities, and is seeking to build and develop a support model using knowledge and experience from Japan.

The project is implementing support for disability service units to act as hubs for support at five universities annually for three years, to have 15 base universities in three years. The project will also promote coordination among universities and with government agencies, make policy proposals, and disseminate the achievements made at the base universities to other universities. Japanese universities and organizations that support persons with disabilities are also participating in the project’s activities.