Sustaining University Education

## Teaching Professional Ethical Knowledge and Teaching Digital Skills in Higher Education

*Isabel María Gómez-Trigueros*

#### **Abstract**

This paper analyzes the professional ethical knowledge of teachers in the use of technologies by teachers in training. It is intended to measure the correct inclusion of technologies in the classroom with the use of the Disciplinary Pedagogical Technological Knowledge model (TPACK). For this, a descriptive exploratory methodological design study was carried out. The instruments used have been the Likert scale questionnaire and the personal interview, organized into four dimensions, which are the self-perception of professional ethical knowledge, ethical knowledge of technology, pedagogical technological ethical knowledge, and disciplinary technological ethical knowledge of the future teachers. The questionnaire has been applied to a sample of 1.051 trainee teachers from a European university in the context of COVID-19 and 822 students participated in the interview. The results show the scarce training in professional ethical knowledge of teachers in training and the importance of addressing this knowledge in the twenty first century, a post-pandemic context. Another of the conclusions is the need to include the ethical component in the TPACK model to achieve correct and ethical use of digital resources in the classroom.

**Keywords:** professional ethics, teaching digital competence, technology, teachers in training, higher education

#### **1. Introduction**

The World Health Organization (WHO) classified the outbreak of the disease caused by the new virus of the Coronaviridae family known internationally as COVID-19 in March 2020 as a global pandemic (National Epidemiological Surveillance Network, RNVE). It was a public emergency, in view of the rapid evolution of infections on a national and international scale. The international health authorities prepared a guide as a strategic plan for preparation and response to the pandemic. This document included the necessary guidelines to act in the generalized state of alarm. These indications were subsequently updated, incorporating others aimed at alleviating humanitarian, social, economic, and educational problems. Schools were forced to move from face-to-face education to distance education based, almost exclusively, on the inclusion of technologies as learning tools. This situation

has given rise to the fact that the two key elements of the teaching and learning process (T-L), students and teachers, have verified the negative consequences of little or no interaction between them, which has endangered the formation of citizenship, as well as the importance of ethical aspects in the educational process.

#### **1.1 The TPACK model and teacher digital skills**

The adaptation to virtual teaching has been different in relation to the educational level. Universities are the educational institutions that have suffered the least from face-to-face education to virtual education, but this transformation has not been the same for all of them or for all of their members. Some universities had digital platforms before the pandemic. These universities used these digital resources as a complement to traditional face-to-face teaching [1]. Other universities had to make an effort to be able to adapt to the new 100% virtual situation [2].

There is no doubt that this pandemic has generated an innovative movement in education, helping to find educational solutions in times of confinement. Even so, the new educational situation has put on the table, the importance of training in the proper use of technologies, promoting a correct digital competence of the student. Also, a lack of training in digital skills for active teachers has been detected [2, 3]. This is not something new, many investigations related to the digital training of teachers confirm the need for adequate preparation of teachers for the twentyfirst century. For this training to be correct, it is necessary to have knowledge of the subject to be taught and to have pedagogical knowledge [4], as well as adequate instruction in technological skills [5]. The Disciplinary Pedagogical Technological Knowledge (TPACK) teaching and learning model includes the components and knowledge of teachers for the information technology era. In a virtual world, where technology is of key importance in all aspects of life, this model provides an instructional framework for: students to develop twentyfirst-century skills through the use of technology and for teachers to plan and implement strategies that make the E-A process more successful [5–8].

#### **1.2 The ethics of technologies in the classroom**

The concept of ethics is a key factor in higher education, and it is important to study the attitude of teachers toward the ethical use of tools and digital knowledge. Universities have played, throughout time, the role of being transmitters of social, cultural, academic, and ethical values. This training maxim cannot be omitted or left for another time, much less in teacher training.

Ethical teacher behavior includes responsibilities related to justice, respect, empathy, attention, student care, and commitment, among other virtues, during the teaching process, recognizing the consequences of this ethical behavior and the transmission of those values-virtues [9] and what known as pedagogical ethical knowledge [10]. It includes the understanding of the responsibilities, rights, and obligations during the educational process, the knowledge of the possible impact and the consequences of appropriate or inappropriate behavior in the teaching process, and the knowledge of ethical inferences involved.

There are many investigations on the use of technologies in education but without taking into account the ethical considerations of their inclusion in the classroom. This is an issue of great importance since teachers must face the ethical challenges that the use of new modalities of access to information with technology can pose [11].

#### *Teaching Professional Ethical Knowledge and Teaching Digital Skills in Higher Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109221*

Official bodies and legal texts on priority digital skills in which teachers should be trained (UNESCO ICT Competence Framework; European Framework for Teacher Digital Competence (DigCompEdu); Common Framework for Teacher Digital Competence of the National Institute of Educational Technology and Teacher Training (INTEF)) seek to recognize the way in which ICT should be used and integrated into teaching, showing different training itineraries and identifying the needs of teachers for a correct inclusion of such tools in the classroom. In all these documents, there is already talk of the importance of the ethical dimension in the use of technological resources [12].

When research related to the correct inclusion of technologies in education is observed, ethics is highlighted as one more factor, to be taken into account in educational and training processes. For this reason, it must be borne in mind that ethical awareness is present in the teachers' approaches in relation to the right of access to technologies or to address issues of technology-based intellectual property. Also, the veracity of the information used and extracted with technology and achieving the security and privacy of students when they use technological resources is a priority [13].

The new post-pandemic scenario increases the importance of applying ethics in the use of educational technology in the classroom and in instructional design, presented as an added challenge to the educational context of the twentyfirst- century. The purpose of this research has been to analyze the ethical knowledge of teachers in training for the correct incorporation of technologies in the classroom through the TPACK model. For this, the ethical component has been included in the model and it has been assessed, through a questionnaire and personal interviews, adapted to the pandemic context, with bimodal teaching, in the faculty of education of a European university. The objectives can be specified in the following questions or study variables:


#### **2. Characteristics of the context and the sample participating in the study**

The research has been developed during four academic years: 2019–2020, 2020–2021, 2021–2022, and 2022–2023, in the learning context of a faculty of education of a European university. It should be noted that the research is located at a time of pandemic in which educational centers had opted for 100% remote teaching. In the specific case of the university where the study was carried out, the students received their training in the bimodal modality consisting of 50% of the students attending the classroom in person while the other 50% of the group received teaching virtually, through the platforms created by the institution for this purpose. Although this situation has been maintained over time throughout the first two academic years

studied, in the 2021–2022 academic year, teaching has returned to being fully face-toface, which has allowed personal interviews with the participants in the study. This circumstance has meant having the direct and qualitative opinion of the teachers in training, enriching the results of the study carried out.

The sample object of the study has been selected in a non-probabilistic, directed, and intentional way [14]. It consists of 1051 participants, teachers in training, undergraduate (895 students), and postgraduate (156 students). The sample is considered significant with respect to the total existing population and is made up of 840 women (80%), 740 graduate (88%) and 100 postgraduate (12%), and 211 men (20%), 155 graduate (73%) and 56 postgraduate (27%). The age range is between 19 years and over 40 years.

#### **3. Methodology**

#### **3.1 Design of the investigation**

The work has been proposed from a descriptive approach, with a mixed methodology [15]. For its development, an exploratory research design has been used, based on the use of the questionnaire as an instrument for collecting information and the personal interview [2, 16]. The study process has been configured through different phases: firstly, a theoretical review was carried out on the Disciplinary Pedagogical Technological Knowledge model, reviewing research on the measurement of said E-A model, the concept of professional ethics for teachers (pedagogical ethics and measurements of ethical knowledge), virtual teaching, and previously developed studies on teacher digital competence (TDC); secondly, the instruments were designed and subsequently validated based on the collaboration of teachers from other national and international universities with experience in pedagogical ethics and teaching technological pedagogical competences; thirdly, based on the suggestions and qualifications of these experts, the research team carried out revisions of the items (modifications in the questions for a better understanding of the issues raised; unification of some items and the like); fourthly, the collection of information was carried out through the questionnaire, research instrument, and interviews; finally, the information collected was emptied and analyzed.

#### **3.2 Data collection instruments**

In this research, a cross-sectional quantitative methodological design of descriptive and inferential nature has been chosen. On the one hand, the questionnaire has been applied, adapted to the objectives of the study, and designed *ad hoc*, based on the one used by Yurdakul et al. [17] and Gómez-Trigueros [7], whose content has been validated by 21 experts from Spanish and international public universities, from categories ranging from professors to doctoral assistants.

Each researcher was asked to rate the importance and operability of each question using a 5-point scale (1, Strongly disagree, to 5, Strongly agree). They were also encouraged to provide suggestions for each question. Based on the comments received from the experts, the instrument was redesigned, which was made up of 17 items measured on a five-point Likert scale (1, Strongly disagree; 2, Disagree; 3, Neither agree nor disagree; 4, Agree; and 5, Totally agree), and organized into four dimensions or study variables: 1. Knowledge professional ethical (PEK) (items 4–6);

#### *Teaching Professional Ethical Knowledge and Teaching Digital Skills in Higher Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109221*

2. Knowledge technological ethical (TEK) (7–9); 3. Pedagogical technological ethical knowledge (PTEK) (items 10–13); and 4. Disciplinary technology ethical knowledge (EKDT) (items 14–17) (**Table 1**). In addition, the first part includes aspects related to the sociodemographic characteristics of the sample (items 1–3).

On the other hand, the interview is equally validated and made up of the same dimensions with a different wording so as not to condition the answers or provide training for the participants. The information obtained was subjected to an exploratory-comparative reading based on the available content, in order to identify the thematic lines and the possibilities of saturation of the different emerging categories (*f*) [18]. Next, from the constant comparison of the data, an open coding process of the transcripts was carried out. The codes obtained were grouped and organized, based on their connections, into study variables or subcategories and their selective group coding was carried out, integrated around four central analysis dimensions: professional-teacher ethical knowledge dimension; dimension of ethical knowledge of the use of technology; dimension of knowledge of the implementation of technology in the pedagogical task; and dimension of ethical knowledge of technology in disciplinary development.

Finally, after identifying the partial existence of more than one study variable in the statements expressed by the students, the analysis variables were coded and quantified using an ordinal scale from 1 to 3, where 1 represents a low level of


*M1 = Mean; SD2 =; PEK3 = Professional ethical knowledge; TEK4 = Technological ethical knowledge; PTEK5 = Pedagogical technological ethical knowledge; and EKDT6 = Ethical knowledge disciplinary technology.*

#### **Table 1.**

*Descriptive statistics (M, SD) of the research questionnaire.*

approximation and 3 a high level of approximation. Level of approximation to the variable under study. This procedure allowed adjusting the explanatory trends of each emerging variable from a quantitative dimension. Analyzed variables are as follows:


In order to verify the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's Alpha coefficient has been calculated [19]. The results obtained (questionnaire α = .921) confirm the existence of a high and adequate internal consistency for the proposed study. In the same way, the Pearson Chi-Square index was found with results of p-value <1 = Sig. 0.001 [20], indicative of the high correlation between the questions posed, illustrative of the validity of the items, and the structure of the implemented instrument.

The second research instrument, the interview, has also been validated. For this, the Delphi method [21] was used. The stability of the results was achieved, after their consensus, after the administration of the evaluation instrument in two rounds, and after obtaining statistically reliable results. To use this method, two groups were formed: a coordinating group, which was made up of the researchers of the present study and those responsible for the design of the instrument, and an evaluator group of experts, the same ones that were used for the first instrument. In their analysis, the following were evaluated: the relevance and adequacy, the internal coherence and the importance of the questions that they intended to formulate, and their general

assessment of the construct on a scale of 1 to 10 points. Also, a reliability and internal consistency analysis of the total scale (α = .901) was carried out.

#### **3.3 Procedure**

In relation to the procedure, the questionnaire was administered to the entire sample through a link that is hosted in the free Google Forms application, during the first quarter of each of the academic courses analyzed (from September to December). The students received the questionnaire through their institutional mail from the university and were informed of the objective of the research, as well as the confidentiality of the responses.

For their part, semi-structured personal interviews have been carried out. The selection and application of the interview technique had the objective of obtaining personalized information on the attitudes and representations of the components of professional ethics and ethics with technology and pedagogy of the participants. The application of this technique was complemented with the completion of the abovemeaning questionnaire, in order to construct meanings and deepen the interpretation of the individual perceptions of the students [22]. The interviewees were summoned by institutional email; they were carried out in the faculty of education of the same university institution throughout the third and fourth week of November of all the school years of the study. For the first two academic years analyzed (2019–2020 and 2020–2021), the interviews were conducted through the Google Meet program; in the case of the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 academic years, the latter still under development, the interviews have been carried out in person. Both in the emails and at the beginning of the interview, the participants were informed about the conditions in which it would take place, the research objectives, and its duration: 55 minutes. After the explanation of the research purpose, the participants were reminded of the confidentiality and anonymity with which the data obtained would be processed and interpreted and that, in addition, they would be recorded in audio. A total of 522 students out of the total 1.051 called (*n* = 1.051) participated in the interviews.

In order to respond to the research objectives, both descriptive analyzes (means = *M* and standard deviation = *SD*) have been carried out, using the statistical program Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Statistics) in its version 25 for Windows as a tool.

The instruments used and the procedure designed in this study have been approved by the ethics committee of the university institution where the research was carried out (File UA-2021-2108-27).

#### **4. Results**

#### **4.1 Descriptive analysis**

The results of the descriptive statistics (*M* = Mean; *SD* = Standard Deviation) of each one of the dimensions (**Table 1**) underline, in the first place, the weak training of the participants in relation to key concepts, related to professional teaching ethics. Thus, in the dimension of professional ethical knowledge (PEK), the response values show little or no training of the participants and little preparation to apply ethical principles in educational processes; with mean values around 2 (Disagree) (*M* ≤ 2.33) and a mean dispersion of the responses issued low *SD* ≤ 0.58).

The results of the descriptive statistics (*M; SD*) of each of the dimensions analyzed (**Table 1**) show a weak training of teachers in training on key concepts related to professional teaching ethics. In the dimension of professional ethical knowledge (PEK), responses very close to value 2 of the Likert scale "Disagree" (*M* ≤ 2.31) are obtained. This result indicates the poor preparation of teachers in training on ethical principles in the teaching and learning processes.

The values obtained in the technological ethical knowledge (TEK) dimension related to the participants' perception of their ethical knowledge in the use of technologies present responses close to value 5 (Strongly agree) (*M* ≥ 4.94; *SD* ≤ 0.50). These results indicate the high perception of teachers in training on ethical issues related to safety in the use of ICT resources (item 7); copyright in relation to content hosted on the Internet (item 9); and the importance of technological resources for the development of society in the context of the 21st century (item 8).

In the pedagogical technological ethical knowledge (PTEK) dimension, the values show the negative perception of the participants about their ability to guide students in the ethical use of technologies; in the protection of their rights, and in the transmission of ethical values in the E-A process (*M* ≤ 3.11; *SD* ≥ 0.76). For its part, this same dimension yields positive values, which are close to response option 5 (Strongly agree) when asked about your capacity for the ethical use of ICT resources, as a teacher (item 12, *M* = 4.88; *SD* = 0.53).

The values obtained for the fourth dimension ethical knowledge disciplinary technology (EKDT), the sample considers that it has sufficient knowledge about respect for the intellectual property of digital content and resources; and that it has the capacity to discriminate against nonsexist, discriminatory, or violent materials. In the same way, he perceives himself with the capacity to transmit values such as justice, truth, and respect for diverse opinions with his teaching practice (*M* ≥ 4.83; *SD* ≤ 0.58).

It is important to highlight the answers obtained in item 15 "I know the ethical principles in relation to the use of digital resources for teaching." Their responses show that teachers in training do not recognize ethical principles in the use of technology for teaching with response values close to 3 "Neither agree nor disagree" (*M* = 3.03; *SD* = 0.88) indicative of the need to address this training in future teachers.

#### **5. Discussion and conclusions**

The current educational context offers challenges and possibilities for teachers. The post-pandemic situation has given the green light for the massive inclusion of technologies in training. Universities and training centers for future teachers have the challenge of offering a level of instruction that educates in disciplinary, pedagogical, and technological content. The researchers found that the TPACK teaching and learning model offers ample possibilities to develop training in teacher digital competences. It helps the correct inclusion of technologies in the classroom and a better understanding of ICT resources for teaching.

It is, therefore, a priority to harmonize education systems and guidelines for activities related to the principles of ethics. In the specific case of technologies, the use of these tools in an equitable, fair, and responsible manner is proposed as a measure to achieve an improvement in the quality of world education. It is a priority to pay special attention to ethical knowledge in teacher training, understood as behavior

#### *Teaching Professional Ethical Knowledge and Teaching Digital Skills in Higher Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109221*

based on values of justice, equity, truth, and responsibility in the use of technology in teaching and learning environments [8].

The results of this research confirm the lack of training in the professional ethical knowledge of the students of the analyzed university. These values indicate the need for training in the understanding of ethics in the classroom and coincide with the other research [17] where it is stated that teachers must have, in addition to knowledge of the subject, pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge, a preparation in ethics for teaching.

The need to resolve issues related to aspects related to how the teacher guides the use of digital resources in the classroom is highlighted. The data obtained in this work show that teachers in training are aware of the importance of the safe use of content hosted on the Internet; the importance of respecting the authorship of the contents; and the need to make responsible use of these contents, but they are unaware of the pedagogy to carry out this task in their professional activity. These results coincide with other studies on technology and teaching [12, 13] where the importance of ethical use of ICT tools is emphasized.

Finally, this research wants to point out the importance of teacher training in issues related to teaching ethics in the use of technologies, in the new post-pandemic context. It is urgent to carry out a correct preparation of our teachers in order to generate an ethical use of digital tools, which allow a formation of citizens of the information society and communication competent in ICT.

#### **Acknowledgements**

This research is sponsored and financed by the Department of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society of the Generalitat Valenciana 2021, and is part of the call for grants from the Program for the Promotion of Scientific Research, Technological Development and Innovation in the Valencian Community 2021 XX to support and promote the activity of emerging R + D + I groups (DOGV n°8959, 2021). Under this call, the work presented here is the result of the emerging group project (GV/2021/077): The digital gender gap and the TPACK model in teacher training: analysis of digital teacher training, coordinated by Dr. Isabel María Gómez Trigueros (University of Alicante).

#### **Conflict of interest**

"The authors declare no conflict of interest."

### **Author details**

Isabel María Gómez-Trigueros University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain

\*Address all correspondence to: isabel.gomez@ua.es

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Teaching Professional Ethical Knowledge and Teaching Digital Skills in Higher Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109221*

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#### **Chapter 14**

## Perspective Chapter: A Phenomenological Study of an International Class Program at an Indonesian University

*Zainal Asril, Engkizar, Syafrimen Syafril, Zainul Arifin and K. Munawir*

#### **Abstract**

This study intends to shed light on the issues with Indonesian institutions' foreign class programs. This study was conducted utilizing qualitative techniques and a phenomenological framework. Participatory observation and document analysis were used to collect data over the academic years 2019–2020–2021. Additionally, 42 informants (leaders in higher education, instructors, international students, and foreign students) who were chosen using the purposive sample approach were the subject of in-depth interviews. Using NVIVO 12.0 Software and the Milles & Huberman interactive model analysis approach, all observational data, documents, and interviews were thematically evaluated. The study's findings revealed four factual issues with the international class program at Indonesian tertiary institutions, including the following: (i) some of these institutions do not have a permanent international standard curriculum; (ii) students' English proficiency is low; (iii) international standard lecturer competence is not yet complete; and (iv) inadequate infrastructure and learning support services. These results provide tertiary institutions running international class programs with information and assessment materials to address these four issues. However, it is important for colleges hosting courses with students from other countries to be able to correctly prepare the four instruments mentioned above, preventing similar issues from occurring in the future.

**Keywords:** phenomenology international class program, Indonesian higher education, World Class University, learning support facilities, higher education

#### **1. Introduction**

The education sector must be prioritized in order to generate a superior generation capable of global competitiveness if Indonesia is to become a golden nation in 2045 [1]. To accomplish this aim, the government must adopt strategic policies that will allow Indonesia's educational system to compete with those of industrialized nations worldwide [2]. Four strategic policies have been prepared by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia as a basis for future national education direction and policies. (i) The availability of educational scholarship programs at the undergraduate, master's, and doctorate levels domestically and abroad for students, scholars, instructors, lecturers, practitioners, researchers, and members of the public with specialized knowledge is one of the four techniques. (ii) Development of better educational infrastructure, including the construction of schools, representational study spaces, full laboratory setups, digital libraries, student reading gardens, and other educational amenities. (iii) "Freedom of learning" curriculum adjustments from elementary school to tertiary level; and (iv) annual increases in the education budget of twenty percent (20%) of the entire state budget [3].

The four strategic policies mentioned above demonstrate how seriously the Indonesian government takes its management of the education sector as both an investment in the future and a national resource. Indonesia's dreams and desires to join the industrialized nations of the globe may undoubtedly be realized in the coming years if the education sector is managed efficiently [4]. If it is carried out with a collaborative idea between the government, the community, institutions, or NGOs active in education [5], this dream will undoubtedly come true. Additionally, consistency is required as a shared commitment so that the planned program does not end in the middle of its course even when the goal has not been adequately attained [6]. Additionally, a tool is required to assess how successful the performance accomplishments have been and where they still need to be improved in order to accurately evaluate the outcomes of their implementation [7, 8]. Last but not least, if a program is not continued throughout time, it will not yield good and genuine outcomes [9].

Speaking about progressive education, it goes without saying that you should look to and take lessons from nations with exceptional and cutting-edge educational systems. I'll use the top 10 educational systems in the world now as an example: Finland, England, the United States, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Ireland, and Denmark [10–15]. According to study findings, development in the nation's educational system is attained via hard effort, transparency, teamwork, sustainability, and a system of assessment that measures progress in an academic and scientific manner [16–19]. Even the educational systems in these 10 nations were developed after a variety of extensive research projects before being implemented at the technical level in the field [20, 21]. In order to ensure that the anticipated educational achievements are successfully attained, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture must specifically refer to and learn from the system employed by the developed nations mentioned above.

Regarding the issue of this study, which is the implementation of international class programs in Indonesian tertiary institutions. Many of Indonesia's top universities, including Gadjah Mada University, University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, IPB University, Airlangga University, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, University of North Sumatra, Andalas University, Brawijaya University, Padjadjaran University, Diponegoro University, Hasanuddin University, have international class programs in place for 10 years. Islamic postsecondary schools, such Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, Raden Intan Lampung State Islamic University, and Imam Bonjol Padang State Islamic University, among others, also provide lessons in other countries. Each higher institution gives the international class a different name, such as accelerated, superior, intense, or bilingual classes.

Despite the fact that the international class program has been running for 10 years. Based on research and evaluations by educational professionals, the international class program has generally been operating well in a number of tertiary institutions. However, in a number of these institutions, the program has not produced the desired

results, and new issues frequently arise that affect both the organizing university and the students who participated [22]. The authors will perform study on this phenomenon specifically for 3 years (2019–2021).

#### **2. Literature review**

The international class program is one way for universities to achieve world-class status. In addition, this program is one of the tools used by global higher education ranking organizations like QS World University Rankings, Webometrics, Unirank, and Times Higher Education to evaluate universities [23, 24]. Every year, these organizations will publish world university rankings following an evaluation of a tertiary institution's reputation among academics, employers, faculty student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty, international students, and international programs [25–28]. This implies that one of the ranking criteria includes the international class program.

According to a study the author did based on the QS World University Rankings list from 2017 to 2021, which relates to the growth of the ranking of Indonesian universities at the global level, the ranking of Indonesian institutions has shown good improvement every year. Ten universities, including the University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Gadjah Mada University, Airlangga University, IPB University, November 10 Institute of Technology, Diponegoro University, Brawijaya University, Padjadjaran University, Bina Nusantara University, and Muhammadiyah University Surakarta, are among those with rankings between 300 and 1000 among all universities worldwide, according to the data. Naturally, this accomplishment demonstrates the international competitiveness of Indonesian colleges. The information is displayed in **Figure 1** below.

According to the statistics above, a number of university administrators (chancellors) claimed that the international class program is the reason why their institution is included among the top universities in the world. A postsecondary university's

**Figure 1.** *Ranking of Indonesian universities in QS World University Rankings 2017–2021.*

international class program has led to a rise in the number of foreign students, professors, and researchers working with the local tertiary institution as in the extracts from interviews with other university presidents below:

*We have opened international classes for seven years, this program has opened opportunities for students, lecturers and researchers from around the world to collaborate with lecturers and researchers on this campus… we are implementing this program with the aim of raising the ranking of our universities to the world level,… [informant G, 2017]. To raise our university ranking we have opened an international class program from 2012, now you can see the results by increasing our university rankings every year… [informant T, 2021].*

If the interview excerpt from above is examined, it becomes evident that one strategy to boost a university's standing to the international level is to create an international class program there. However, for a program to be successful, everyone involved must share a commitment to see the goals stated through to completion.

#### **3. Methodology**

This study was conducted utilizing qualitative techniques and a phenomenological framework. Participatory observation and document analysis were used to collect data over the academic years 2019–2020–2021. Additionally, 42 informants (leaders in higher education, instructors, international students, and foreign students) who were chosen using the purposive sample approach were the subject of in-depth interviews. The Milles & Huberman technical analysis interactive model was used to evaluate all observational data, documents, and interviews thematically with the use of NVIVO 12.0 Software.

#### **4. Findings and discussion**

There are four issues or phenomena that arise in the international class learning process, according to the analysis of the author's interviews with 45 lecturers and students, which is then supported by observational data and analysis of various documents of student study results in each semester after participating in the international class program. There are four issues: (i) no permanent international standard curriculum in some tertiary institutions; (ii) low English proficiency among students; (iii) incomplete international standard lecturer competence; and (iv) insufficient learning support resources and infrastructure, as seen in **Figure 2** below.

According to the issues covered, the four concerns identified in this study will be examined using theory, professional perspectives, and interview excerpts.

#### **4.1 Lacks an ongoing curriculum that adheres to international standards**

Generally speaking, the curriculum consists of a set of rules that must be followed in order for the learning process to be successful [29, 30]. When an international class program is established, the usage of a global standard curriculum must be developed as the first tool. This curriculum is unquestionably quite different from regular courses. This difference can be observed in several ways, including the *Perspective Chapter: A Phenomenological Study of an International Class Program… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110325*

**Figure 2.** *Problems of international class in Indonesian universities.*

following: (i) using English as a primary language of instruction; (ii) encouraging students to think critically and openly; (iii) having strong soft and hard skills in the scientific field of their choice; (iv) being at the forefront of technology mastery; (v) being able to conduct research; and (vi) being aware of environmental concerns and current issues in a variety of scientific disciplines and (vii) being able to compete in the national and global world of work.

The seven international curriculum requirements mentioned above have not been well satisfied, according to the authors' study of many curriculum materials used by foreign classes in Indonesian tertiary institutions. Even delivering lecture assignments to students at home rather than having them practice in a lab or do field research is prioritized by the curriculum, which still tends to limit students to thinking at the cognitive level and memorization of subject matter knowledge. As a consequence, students who take part in the international class program lack the opportunity to develop their critical thinking abilities and other needed soft and hard skills since the curriculum is still teacher-centered, turning the educational process into a platform for lecturers.

Some of the students interviewed by the authors also stated that, the international class program curriculum should be oriented towards assignment curriculum development, but in fact it is still more oriented towards curriculum assignment. In fact, one of the international class foreign students at a tertiary institution stated that the university where he was studying was called an assignment university, even though according to him it should have gone to a research university. As the following interview excerpt:

*,… the applied curriculum requires more students to memorize subject matter, not to do research, even though research is important to hone our [informant, YY] skills,… I think this is a university assignment because each course requires me to complete one to three assignments,… I actually hoping for more practice [informant KZ].*

The above-mentioned facts make it obvious that the curriculum for foreign class programs has to be rebuilt. The in issues curriculum is capable of meeting the seven previously mentioned worldwide curriculum criteria. However, in the author's opinion, a thorough investigation is required before a curriculum is created in order for the curriculum design to be evaluated academically and scientifically.

#### **4.2 Low English proficiency among students**

As is common knowledge, English is used as the primary language of instruction in international classrooms. Because the fundamental prerequisite is the mastery of the aspects of competency in speaking, reading, listening, and writing English, not all students who have the desire and interest to pursue this program may enroll. However, prior studies revealed that overseas students' English language proficiency was only at a low and moderate level at a number of Indonesian universities [31–33]. Even now, pupils still have a poor level of proficiency in the English language. After administering an English competence exam to students enrolled in foreign classes, the author discovered this phenomenon. In fact, there are still students who stammer and are not fluent in speaking English, it is not appropriate to read English text sentences, they do not understand enough when listening to English conversations or videos and have very low abilities when writing in English.

The aforementioned phenomenon is indeed quite astounding since it begs the question of how a student in an international class can attend lectures when their English language proficiency is subpar. Despite the fact that English is the primary language of instruction in international classes. Due to the fact that the learning objectives were not met and students tended to remain inactive throughout the learning process, it is only logical that some of the lecturers the authors questioned claimed that the international class program appeared to be unsuccessful. If the learning environment is as stated above, it is evident that the international class program's accomplishments are much below what is anticipated.

Of course, in response to the issues raised above, it is vital to determine whether the issue's root causes exist. After conducting interviews with students, the authors identified a number of factors that contributed to the students' poor English proficiency, including the following: (i) there were no specialized intensive English classes from the tertiary institution before students joined the international class program; (ii) they lacked sufficient preparation and proficiency in English before entering college high; (iii) English is still seen as challenging and even less desirable; (iv) is not supported by an environment that can practice English as a daily language or academic language during lectures.

Precisely according to the author's analysis there are several solutions in solving this problem; first, universities must conduct a more stringent selection of students who will take part in international classes, meaning that this program may be attended by students with above average (advanced) English skills in the aspects of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills; second, holding intensive English special classes for international class students on an ongoing basis; third, there are rules and obligations on the part of universities to make English the daily and academic language for international class students, so that students are accustomed to and can hone their English skills in campus life and academic classrooms; fourth, holding mandatory days of communication using English for the entire academic community, at least 3 days a week to support the internationalization of language in the campus environment.

#### **4.3 International standard instructors' levels of expertise are not all-encompassing**

The position of the lecturer plays a strategic role in the success of various tertiary programs as a member of the professional teaching staff in postsecondary institutions, particularly in terms of aspects of effective classroom learning. A person can join the teaching faculty at a tertiary institution in Indonesia provided they meet four competency requirements, namely pedagogical, professional, personal, and social competence. Additionally, instructors must satisfy the minimal educational prerequisites for a master's degree in the subject area they are most interested in. According to the author's research, lecturers who teach in foreign classes in Indonesian tertiary institutions have generally complied with the rules and regulations established by the government.

The four lecturer competency criteria set out by Indonesian ministries are, of course, still national in scope and are not acknowledged worldwide. According to the author, universities should define unique competency requirements for lecturers who will teach in foreign classrooms. The required criteria must be met in order for the standards to be accepted by internationally renowned educators. English, French, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Mandarin are the six official languages of the world. International standard lecturers also have the following categories and abilities: (i) minimum education level qualifications of doctoral graduates; (ii) command of one of these languages; (iii) proficiency with technology; and (iv) high soft and hard skills in the subjects taught, (v) have research experience and have publications that are internationally recognized, (vi) have academic networks with the international world, (vii) be open minded to current changes, (viii) be sensitive to issues that occurs in the midst of society [34–38].

According to the author's data analysis, if the competency standards of lecturers instructing international classes at Indonesian tertiary institutions are evaluated using the aforementioned standard scale for international lecturers, it becomes clear that they still do not meet the categories and conditions that they should. The educational background, publications, teamwork and familiarity with cutting-edge technologies all attest to this reality. The qualifications of lecturers who teach in other countries are still master degrees, according to records on lecturer statistics from many academic institutions. Furthermore, the number of research projects that result in the publishing of globally renowned scientific articles is still relatively low; some professors even lack any foreign publications. The same is true of lecturers' lack of expertise working with researchers and global networks. Another problem, even one that is frequently mentioned among students, is one that is connected to the limited skill of lecturers utilizing modern technologies [39, 40].

However, the lecturer's ability to speak one of the official languages of the globe, particularly English, as well as his or her openness to modern change and sensitivity to social concerns have enabled him or her to fall within the desired category. However, the leadership of higher education as well as the concerned lecturer must be worried about the low level of lecturers in meeting other requirements. Because lecturers should always strive to increase their own competency in a variety of abilities, they can meet requirements for professionals that are acknowledged globally [41, 42].

#### **4.4 Learning support facilities and infrastructure are not sufficient**

One of the tools to ensure a program's success in higher institutions is the provision of suitable facilities and infrastructure [43, 44]. According to the findings of

the author's interviews with students and lecturers, some of the issues encountered include the following: (i) the lack of a smart classroom, despite the fact that this facility is crucial to support learning, even the study rooms that are currently available are still regular classes; (ii) the lack of fully functional practical tools and materials required for study in the laboratory room, limiting students' access and mobility to conduct research because of the number of such tools and materials (iii) does not yet have a library with complete collections related to the field of science being taken, while international class students require a high level of literacy to enrich their reading, literature, insights and the latest information in various fields of science.

Students who enroll in the international class program must be well qualified in both their chosen field of expertise's hard and soft skills [45]. Students must put in substantial effort in order to achieve these goals and satisfy their ambitions so that they can graduate as professionals [46, 47]. Students who complete international class programs are also anticipated to be capable of competing in the global job market. On the other hand, higher education as an organization that plans international class programs, of course, needs to assess as well as improve in modernizing different facilities connected to the international class programs that have been put into place. In other words, the problem of limited learning facilities and infrastructure will certainly become an obstacle to the good implementation of this program if it is not immediately addressed.

#### **5. Conclusion**

One of the tools for creating a tertiary institution of the highest caliber is an international class curriculum. English is utilized for instruction, there are comprehensive learning facilities available, there are a large number of foreign lecturers from different countries, and the curriculum is of an international quality. The Ministry of Education and Culture of the Indonesian Government has demonstrated a genuine commitment to raising the caliber of Indonesian institutions to that of World Class Universities (WCU). The fact that lessons are held in other countries at several of Indonesia's top institutions serves as a glaring example of this mentality. The program, however, requires development in a number of areas, including the following: first, undertake a screening process for students who participate in the program and lecturers who specifically teach English skills, to ensure that there are no barriers to learning in the classroom. Fourth, increasing collaboration between universities, lecturers, and students with various foreign universities so that collaboration is established to add insight and experience, fifth, producing graduates who have multi-skills so that they can be used in the local and international workforce, and sixth, improving learning facilities such as laboratories, access to adequate electronic reading, and libraries.

#### **Acknowledgements**

The author would like to extend their gratitude to all parties, particularly the participants in the research collaboration, university administrators, informants who took the time to participate in the interviews, respondents who completed the questionnaire, and education professionals who offered feedback on, suggestions for improvement on, and criticisms of this paper. We want to carry out similar study in more situations and on additional topics in the future.

*Perspective Chapter: A Phenomenological Study of an International Class Program… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110325*

### **Author details**

Zainal Asril1 \*, Engkizar2 , Syafrimen Syafril3 , Zainul Arifin4 and K. Munawir5

1 Department of Islamic Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Program, State Islamic University of Imam Bonjol, Padang, Indonesia

2 Department of Islamic Education, Padang State University, Padang, Indonesia

3 Department of Islamic Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Program, Raden Intan State Islamic University of Lampung, Lampung, Indonesia

4 Department of Arabic Language Education, State Islamic University of Imam Bonjol, Padang, Indonesia

5 Department of Islamic Education, Alauddin State Islamic University Makassar, Makassar, Indonesia

\*Address all correspondence to: zainalasril@uinib.ac.id

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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#### **Chapter 15**

## Perspective Chapter: African Higher Education Centers of Excellence – A Critical Reflection

*Bekele Workie Ayele*

#### **Abstract**

There are different types of CoEs based on regional, national, and institutional needs, across different disciplines—health sciences, research, leadership, medicine, higher education, etc. Arguably, the conceptualizations of CoEs have been evolving as time goes by. It is imperative to critically examine the nuances of the challenges and opportunities of the African CoEs to enhance their capacity and potential to achieve their vision and mission. Therefore, the paper has twofold objectives: (1) What has been the strategic significances of the African CoEs? and (2) What are the perils of the African CoEs? These critical questions are examined from the perspective of Transformative Learning Theory. Although the strategic significances of the African CoEs included capacity development and academic collaborations and partnership, there have been also such perils as a lack of epistemic congruence within the African indigenous knowledge and skills bases and the compromisation of autonomy and academic freedom of the hosting HEIs of the CoEs.

**Keywords:** Africa, higher education, center of excellence, interdisciplinarity, transformative learning

#### **1. Introduction**

Historically, centers of excellence (CoE) originated in the manufacturing sector and were a centralized body to improve operations and output [1]. Later, they were leveraged by information and technology leaders, seeking to facilitate the creation of hubs for knowledge sharing and capacity building [1]. Currently, there are different types of CoEs based on regional, national, and institutional needs, across different disciplines—health sciences, research, leadership, medicine, higher education, etc. Arguably, the conceptualizations of CoEs have been evolving as time goes by.

CoEs could be a network of partners, with a coordinating center, which works together to pursue excellence in a particular area [2]. They could be physical and/or virtual. As partners, they could share infrastructure and bring together academics across different disciplines. The two common pillars of CoEs, therefore, are a concentration of resources, both material and human, in the pursuit of attaining and sustaining world-class performance in their focus areas [3]. The human capital of such

centers is unique, as they do have leading-edge knowledge and competency. Hence, CoEs are normally referred to as competency or capability centers.

Globally, interest in excellence has grown exponentially, as public and private institutions shift their attention from meeting targets to achieving excellence. The establishment of African CoEs has emerged as a trend in the African higher education space, spearheaded by different regional and global actors. The Word Bank (WB) and the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) are cases in point. The WB popularly introduced African CoEs in 2014. Presently, the WB has 76 CoEs, in 20 different African countries in the eastern and southern regions. These CoEs are run in collaboration with the governments of the hosting countries. WB's CoEs have been envisioned to strengthen selected Eastern and Southern African higher education institutions (HEIs) to deliver quality postgraduate education and build collaborative research capacity in the regional priority areas [4]. ARUA and United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), furthermore, have joined-forces and launched 13 African CoEs envisioned to address Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).

Arguably, the ARUA's and the WB's centers of excellence appear focusing to alleviate the pressing challenges the continent is facing in the twenty-first century.

#### **2. Objectives**

CoE is typically established to address skills and knowledge deficits within organizations, countries, regions, and the continent at large. The African CoEs are no exception. However, there may be reasons to adopt a critical view on the presumptuous benefits of African CoEs. This is imperative to enhance their capacity and potential to achieve their vision and mission by critically examining the nuances of the challenges and opportunities of the African CoEs.

The overarching objective of this reflective paper, therefore, is to unpack the African higher education CoEs within the sociocultural and politico-economic premises of the African continent. Specifically, the paper has twofold objectives: (1) What have been the strategic significances of the African CoEs? and (2) What are the perils of the African CoEs? These critical questions are examined from the perspective of Transformative Learning Theory.

#### **3. Methodology**

The paper primarily used a critical desk review. Hence, scoping reviews of global evidence about CoEs were made using the Google search engine and data were gathered from such sources as PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and Google Scholar until November 2022. Once retrieved, they were critically reviewed and reflected on, following the objectives of the paper, in the backdrop of the sociocultural and politicoeconomic of the African continent, guided by Transformative Learning Theory.

#### **4. Transformative learning theory**

Worldviews/ frames of references are basic beliefs a person holds about how the world works [5]. They are often acquired uncritically through the socialization and acculturation process, most frequently during significant experiences with teachers,

#### *Perspective Chapter: African Higher Education Centers of Excellence – A Critical Reflection DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109554*

parents, and mentors. Over time, in conjunction with numerous congruent experiences, they become more ingrained in our psyche and support us by providing explanations of the happenings in our daily lives and we become dependent upon them. They act as a sieve through which each new experience is interpreted and given meaning. The new experience is assimilated into these structures if it reinforces the meaning perspective. An incongruent new experience cannot be assimilated. They could be either rejected or the meaning perspective itself is revised and transformed to accommodate the new experience. In nutshell, the revision and transformation of meaning perspectives is the central point of Transformative Learning Theory.

Transformative learning is a desirable process for individuals to learn to think for themselves, through true emancipation from unquestioning acceptance of life experiences, without the active engagement of how we know what we know [6]. Transformative learning occurs when adults engage in activities that allow them to see a different worldview from their own [7]. A perspective transformation leads to "a more fully developed frame of reference which is inclusive, differentiating, permeable, and critically reflective" [6]. Transformative learning is threatening as we experience anxiety and feel threatened when we interrogate assumptions that have been taken for granted for a long in our lives [5].

There are two types of meaning perspective transformations: epochal transformations and incremental transformations [7]. Epochal transformation occurs when meaning perspective change comes quickly. The change is immediately obvious to the learner involved, over perhaps minutes or days. It is a conscious experience of a transformation from one state of not knowing to another state of knowing. A common example would be when someone feels a sense of "Ah Ha!" An incremental transformation, however, is a result of small shifts in meaning schema over time, perhaps over months or years. In this transformation, a learner slowly realizes that his/her meaning perspective has shifted. As a result, there is a kind of retrospective remembering of perspective shift. For instance, remembering the fact that one had a belief that she/he could never finish a university degree successfully. Epochal and incremental transformations assume that there is a conscious appreciation of a shift in meaning perspective in order to be considered transformative.

Furthermore, it describes the transformation of meaning perspectives that occur either in instrumental domain or communicative domain of learning [7]. The former involves cause-effect relationships, problem-solving, and an understanding of how things work. This includes an understanding of the environment (including people), engineering, adult learning and training, trades, management skills, and other technical areas. Transformation in the communicative domain involves the understanding of how people present themselves, and communicate and relate with each other [7] Generally, the communicative domain includes understanding, describing, explaining and reasoning intentions, values, ideals, moral issues, political, philosophical, psychological, and educational concepts and feelings [7]. In the communicative domain, meaning is created through abductive reasoning, which Mezirow describes as the process of using our own experience to understand another's [7].

#### **4.1 Implication of transformative learning theory to African CoEs**

The African CoEs are avenues, where different people with higher expertise and experiences converge, for critical academic debates. Hence, they are supposed to be centers where meaning perspective transformation takes place as they are the melting pots of different worldviews. Individuals involved in the African CoEs are supposed

to transform their perspectives, either by revising their worldview or transforming it. Ultimately, individuals could develop worldviews that are inclusive, differentiating, permeable, critically reflective, and integrative of experience [6]. Trafnsformative learning through the CoEs should be done by interrogating all dimensions of the African CoEs. This is a true emancipation for the African people and the continent of Africa. Therefore, we need to engage with African CoEs critically exploring critical topics, overcoming constraints, and expanding the limits of the art of the possible transformative journey. Nevertheless, this should be done within the backdrop of Millennia's old African indigenous knowledge and skill bases.

#### **5. Strategic significances of the African CoEs**

In this reflective paper, the specifics of the general strategic objectives/orientations of African CoEs are considered as significances**/**opportunities. The African higher CoEs could and should realize human resource development, and improve organizational agility to ultimately positively impact the development of scientific capacity for the creation of new knowledge and innovation to steer socioeconomic development of the continent.

#### **5.1 Capacity development**

There has not been a single and simple definition of capacity building. Over the years, however, it has been equated with UNESCO's conceptualization. Capacity is the [the] ability of individuals, organizations, and systems to perform appropriate functions efficiently, effectively, and sustainably [7, 8]. The International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) [8] divides the capacity building into two: (1) human resource development—providing skills, knowledge, and values to perform effectively, and (2) organizational development—the development of institutional legal frameworks to create and maintain institutional arrangements in a view to enhance the capacities of institutions [9]. In short, capacity includes not only the scientific production capacity of academics but also institutional conditions and capacities, supporting and facilitating these scientific productions.

"Excellence," was not designated with the habit to do the process rather than the end product [10]. The common characteristics of the CoEs are high research quality and productivity, resource attraction and concentration, international visibility and attractiveness, and organizational robustness and good governance [10]. They are often highly attractive to research and development (R&D) investments and talent in their field [11]. In general, CoEs are believed to bring innovative mechanisms to promote knowledge and scientific advancements [11]. The African CoEs, therefore, are believed to be epicenters for capacity development, which is an important requisite to steer the R&D, of the African country in question. Untimely, this could have a ripple effect as they could be easily emulated by other HEIs.

The human capital in the CoEs possesses very specific and unique skillsets, deep and broad experiences, and does have exudes multidisciplinary capacities. The African CoEs, therefore, are avenues for creating synergic capacities to act on new research problems, expanding the horizon of science. The African CoEs can add value to transform institutions and countries' economic growth and development. Arguably, the African CoEs have been envisioned to impact socioeconomic development of the African continent positively by supporting and doing scientific prioritization in the science system of the African countries. In other words, African CoEs are

#### *Perspective Chapter: African Higher Education Centers of Excellence – A Critical Reflection DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109554*

believed to be the hub for the development of capacities, for enhancing R&D endeavors, so that commercialization of innovations; development of new technologies; and the improvement of services are possible and could be accelerated.

Therefore, the African CoEs need to be in tune with established practices and embrace the latest trends and emerging thoughts of higher education. Therefore, CoEs need to develop and document templates, blueprints, and repeatable processes and methodologies for all significant work efforts. As a matter of fact, the fundamental principle of the CoE is continuous success and evolution. CoE should establish, define and develop standards and best practices and improve them continually. They strive to surpass ordinary standards and standardize best practices for institution-wide adoption and offer advice on strategic planning, decision-making, and execution.

The African CoEs could permit resource pooling, human resource, in particular, to address critical skills, and applied research needs, which are highly needed across African countries. That is why the WB's African CoEs have been aiming at. These centers are expected to equip young Africans with new scientific and technical skills, in the areas, where the continent faces a serious shortage of skilled workers in fastgrowing sectors, such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), extractive industries, agriculture, health, energy, water, infrastructure, environment, agriculture, applied social science, education, and health [4].

Moreover, the ARUA's CoEs have been in a similar lane as the WB's. They are believed to be focal points for aggregating world-class researchers from member universities to undertake collaborative research across priority themes—extreme poverty and disease, fragile states and displacement, gender inequalities, and food insecurity. They are also supposed to provide opportunities for graduates from Africa and beyond to work with experienced researchers, forming an assembly point for skilled researchers and students seeking to carry out cutting-edge research.

#### **5.2 Academic collaborations and partnership**

CoEs should work with a partnership, which is a leveraging asset. The partnership might include collaboration in the delivery of education programs; faculty development programs; joint conferences, joint research, sharing access to specialized research; learning equipment and library resources (giving students and faculty exposure to different learning environment and equipment), student and faculty exchange, and joint organization of specific courses, for example, at the postgraduate level.

They (CoEs) have been drawing the attention of scientists to enhance collaborations and cultivate access to resources essential for advanced research [12]. Academic partnerships are the lifeblood of CoEs and make them a nodal point that connects various multidisciplinary perspectives the world over. The defining characteristics enable the African CoEs to disseminate discoveries and innovations to the whole of the continent, indeed, beyond.

CoEs have the ability to revitalize the academic system by providing platforms for interdisciplinary, university-industry, and triple-helix relations, promoting bottom-up priority setting among scholars and universities, and attracting talent [13]. Arguably, raising the African CoEs' teaching, engagement, and research capacity through a partnership with national and international leading institutions within a similar mission could help to build upon the strengths of the partnering institutions. The sharing of unique physical and human resources is vital to create synergies, thereby raise the quality of the impact of the CoEs. African CoEs should continue to

revise and update the academic partnership, including consideration of new partners and pushing the frontiers of their mission.

Therefore, the partnership of the African CoEs should be established with national and/or regional industries. CoE-Industry partnerships are important in making the African CoEs relevant by providing improved skills and knowledge, which could address the developmental challenges facing the continent. Extra-mural collaborations play an even greater role in [research] excellence than has been assumed previously [14]. Successful CoEs draw on larger collaborative networks, provide a link between disjointed peers and stakeholders, and work under conditions that reflect multi and transdisciplinary contacts. A scientific sector that operates at the intersection of a diversity of research groups may generate more original research by having a greater variety of perspectives [14]. However, all of the members of the CoE should be self-starters, who are interested in continuous learning and improvement of their skills and expertise.

The African CoEs also benefit from this linkage because university students and academics in them could be exposed to industrial problems, which could be a source for their applied research problem. In other words, this interlinkage could help CoEs to generate funding through fellowships and grants. In general, the partnership between CoEs and industry is a driver for the growth of the science-based industry and industry-based science.

Moreover, CoE-industry relationship could contribute to the understating and advancement of industrial new technologies, which aids the industry in improving the efficiency of these technologies during usage [15]. The pharmaceutical industries in the United States, for instance, have admitted that over 25% of their new drugs could not have been developed without academic research centers [16]. African CoEs could establish [15] important research partnerships with international institutions, critically examining evidence for policy making, hence creating capacity to train future generations of researchers, and stimulating the national science and innovation systems.

To stimulate and enhance the national science and innovation systems of African countries, the African CoEs need to embrace an interdisciplinarity perspective in their planning and actions. Interdisciplinarity basically refers to the broader units of inquiry, the intellectual units that structure the framework in which day-to-day decisions, actions, and interpretations are carried out by groups of scientists' [17]. Therefore, interdisciplinarity should not be described as a particular type of knowledge, but rather in terms of a form of cooperation between areas of knowledge or specialisms in science. One way of describing such cooperation is through the notions of interaction and integration [17].

Interdisciplinary capacity is imperative to look at complex problems critically from multiple perspectives and give solutions in an innovative way. Innovative solutions to problem are very rarely the function of a solo endeavor. Therefore, working in a disciplinary way is against the purpose and nature of CoEs. The essence of a discipline is that of a unified, autonomous corpus of knowledge, and an area of expertise. Students will be "disciplined" in this area through instruction and research of the profession [18].

Therefore, the African CoEs are expected to connect researchers, improving cooperation between and among researchers across disciplines and geographical areas. They are critically significant to impact and stimulate the national science systems of African countries. The African CoEs are expected to create "frontiers in different fields of science" and "internationally competitive (world-class) research capabilities."

#### **6. Perils of African CoEs**

The African CoEs do have potentials, as intended, to transform the African sociocultural and politico-economic consequences. However, in science there has been opportunities within challenges and *vice versa*— there have always been perils within potentials. Therefore, this section presents the perils of the African CoEs. This is important to fully harvest the fruits of these centers.

#### **6.1 Autonomy and academic freedom**

The African CoEs could and should combine issues of quality and relevance of education and research within the backdrop of the culture of African HEIs, in particular, and the continent, in general. Therefore, the African CoEs should uphold, present, and satisfies some unique conditions for long-term viability.

As indicated previously, the African CoEs are initiated by multinational organizations, which are based out of the continent. The quality indicators and monitoring and evaluation mechanism, therefore, are given to the African HEIs as part of the whole package of CoEs. Hence, they could violate and contradict with the established quality assurance systems of the specific countries and the continental large. The continent has been standardizing the African higher education guidelines for quality assurance.

Therefore, the African CoEs could face problems in getting much-needed support from individual academics at various levels as they could be perceived as affecting the academic freedom of individuals and the autonomy of institutions as they are imported. In other words, the role of autonomy and academic freedom, which are the lifeblood of the African CoEs are not espoused clearly and loudly. Excellence is among several organizational imperatives that risk creating a compliance culture at universities, where indicators are often imposed from the outside, thereby undermining autonomy [19].

CoEs can cater to university needs by diversifying their structures cognitively and institutionally into the postmodern university [20]. Ultimately, CoEs could fail to get the buy-in from the hosting HEIs for successful organization-wide adoption and cross-functional collaboration to leverage expertise, for the perceived lack of academic freedom. This is the very vision and mission of the establishment of the African CoEs. CoE could preferably be realized [20] via a sound governance structure that ensures autonomy and self-direction and broadly accepted commitment to academic values. Therefore, the African CoE as an influential brand to stimulate best practices serving as a new organizing principle for positive change in HEIs might not be working.

The African CoEs are established not as standalone centers, but as confirmed parts of a legal institution as a separate division in HEIs. Leadership is one of the critical components of a CoE. The CoEs require powerful and goal-oriented leadership to passionately lead a team in a given direction and drive toward success. The CoE leader should have the maximum commitment to achieving excellence, with the potential to influence the overall functions and long-term visions of the CoE. Arguably, the chance of the very presence of the CoE in the premises of HEIs, changing the ethos of these positively appears to be limited or rear. As a result, Ref. [19] recognizes the trade-offs are necessary to establish excellence milieus in academic settings and associated risks on the institutional level.

The aforementioned institutional governance characteristics of African CoEs are not attuned to the very nature of the leadership of African HEIs. The leadership of the hosting African HEIs is not visionary, vigilant, and agile. In most cases, the Vice

Chancellors and Presidents, with the exception of a few have been appointed because of their political affiliations with the ruling party in the disguised/ in the name of competition and election. Leaders are not, in most cases, appointed because of their merits. Vice Chancellors and Presidents have a widely acknowledged limited capacity for fundraising and even worse misappropriation of grants, procurement and monitoring processes, and hiring or training procedures of existing personnel. Even, trying to change these malaises through imposition might not be helpful to bring the desired/anticipated change.

Therefore, the asymmetric ways of appointment of leaders and leadership characteristics could cast more shadow on the perusal of the mission on part of the African CoEs.

The establishment of CoE needs critical research infrastructure, the existence of specific relationships, availability of funding, high research quality and productivity, resource attraction and concentration, international visibility and attractiveness, and organizational robustness [14]. African CoEs, therefore, is equated to "being better," which could mean, excellence in research, top-quality professors, favorable working conditions, sustainable financing mechanisms, job security and good salary and benefits, adequate facilities, adequate funding, academic freedom, public-private partnerships or generation of revenues through consultancy, training or research services, and atmosphere of intellectual excitement, and faculty self-governance [21]. The CoE emphasizes the ability to attract academic "stars" and mainly collegial consultation over resource allocation [21].

The abovementioned, can create divisions within existing academic environments in terms of resource distribution. In other words, the CoEs are characterized by the concentration of resources. The resource concentration might not be compatible with the limited resource provisions of other units within the institution in question. The resources allocation to the CoEs might not be "democratic" and equitable and may be socially as well as cognitively unacceptable to move scarce resources to a very few high performers in the research system [11]. Besides, there could be also a risk that the multifaceted functions of the university suffer, as excellence may push out relevance and societal engagement.

#### **6.2 Epistemic congruence** *vis***-a-***vis* **violence**

CoEs are significant to build institutional research capacity, which in turn has an effect in terms of results, hypotheses, and novel instrumentation. As such, how to construct research problems, which types of projects to pursue, how to divide research labor in terms of these problems, etc. are also among the effects of the CoE. All these are aggregated as an invention of new research methods and knowledge. CoEs are important for "epistemic venturing," pursuing risky projects that generate and test new hypotheses and attempts to develop new theories [11]. In a nutshell, epistemic effects, such as discovery processes, are the effects of the CoE. Hence, one of the core missions of African CoEs have been relevant knowledge production and effective and efficient mechanic dissemination of it (knowledge).

Through participatory methods, research design and interpretation of data and knowledge production can become Afro-sensed [22]. The process of Afro-sensing in research does not exclude scientific epistemology but seeks to blend ways of knowing and disseminating knowledge [22]. Therefore, the African CoEs should be avenues, where diverse epistemic and knowledge production takes place, including non-Western knowledge and ways of knowing.

Therefore, the African CoEs should be considered as the decolonizing instrument of African HEIs. Not only do they require responding the Eurocentric ideologies and

#### *Perspective Chapter: African Higher Education Centers of Excellence – A Critical Reflection DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109554*

knowledge production, but also balance the tension between European epistemic traditions and African knowledge systems [23]. The African CoEs are poised to respond to the call for transformation related to higher education in many ways, including the promotion of African indigenous knowledge. This could be a challenge as the African HEIs, starting from the political dependence of the continent, have not only been expanding without epistemic independence.

The Africa CoEs need to be defined not only primarily in relation to excellence predicate, but also in terms of the broader sociocultural imperatives inside and outside of science proper. Africa CoEs should position themselves in the African continent to become relevant to the socioeconomic transformation of Africa and Africans. Therefore, Africa CoEs needed to revitalize indigenous knowledge systems. Therefore, the promotion and incorporation of indigenous knowledge into the development ACoEs projects through explicit procedures involving traditional practitioners are of high significance.

However, there appears to be a problem as far as epistemic justice is concerned within the African CoEs. The African HEIs themselves, needless to mention the African CoEs, have been influenced by colonial or western ideologies and dominated by Anglo-Saxon academic tradition. Creating epistemic congruence and coherence between the African CoEs and African societies is a difficult one, lingering and even compounding the epistemic violence of the African CoEs.

#### **7. Conclusions**

The African CoEs do have significant scientific, political, economic, and social impacts. However, these impacts appear reduced because of the lack or absence of CoEs' quality assurance and enhancement mechanism within the framework of the African context.

Hence, a comprehensive framework of external and internal evaluation is to guide and inspire Africa CoEs, and to help governments and funding agencies shape and oversee them.

There have never been established criteria for the African CoEs within the context of the continent to do baselines assessment and plan continuous improvements. Therefore, clearly demonstrating success is a sticking point.

The attempt of setting common milestones applicable to all CoEs across the globe might be misleading. Although it is of paramount significance to have global indicators, it is still important to put local parameters to the ACoEs, which make them relevant to the continent.

The lack of vibrate leadership on the part of the HEIs hosting the African CoEs appears negatively, affecting the spillover effect of the CoEs on the general function and arrangement of the hosting institutions.

The African CoEs need to promote a global view, aiming at enhancing healthy competition on a global platform and promoting the development of globalized knowledge, while at the same time promoting the African indigenous knowledge and skill bases.

### **Author details**

Bekele Workie Ayele Kotebe University of Education, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

\*Address all correspondence to: bekeleworkie@gmail.com

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Perspective Chapter: African Higher Education Centers of Excellence – A Critical Reflection DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109554*

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[5] Mezirow J. Learning to think like an adult: Core concepts of transformation theory. In: Mezirow J and Associates, editors. Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2000. pp. 3-33

[6] Mezirow J. Beyond friere and habermas confusion. A response to Bruce Pietrykowski. Adult Education Quarterly. 1996;**46**:237-239

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[19] VINN Excellence Center (Sweden) [Accessed: 2 January 2023]

[20] Centres of Excellence and Capacity Building: From Strategy to Impact Tomas Hellstro¨ m\* Lund University School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Lund 221 00, Sweden \*Corresponding author. Email: tomas. hellstrom@fek.lu.se

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#### **Chapter 16**

## Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria

*Emmanuel Nnadozie, Afeikhena Jerome and Omo Aregbeyen*

#### **Abstract**

This chapter presents a retrospective and prospective reflections on university education in Nigeria in relation to national development. Retrospectively, the Nigerian university system was among the best in Africa and beyond, especially in the 1970s. The universities were top notch and attracted other Africans who flooded into Nigeria to study. Then the Nigerian university system possessed the four crucial elements of a universal and functional university system-quality teachers, quality students, an enabling environment for learning and international competitiveness. However, over the past three decades, the Nigerian university system has suffered benign neglect and lost its hallmark of quality, and thereby raising concerns about its role and relevance in contemporary national development. Nevertheless, this chapter expresses strong believe and conviction that the university system is still relevant for the socio-economic and political development of the country but there is the need to take necessary actions/steps to strengthen the system towards making it have the desired and comparative international quality and functionality required to meet the requirements of contemporary challenges and the future. Suggestions were offered accordingly.

**Keywords:** university education, national development, university ranking and Nigerian university system, brain drain, education funding

#### **1. Introduction**

Attention and interest in the role of the university in national development is evergreen. This is because universities have long been and remain vital and powerful drivers of socio-economic, cultural and political development, and global innovation. Like other countries, universities have continued to multiply in Nigeria and are expected to contribute to her socio-economic, cultural and political development. However, given the historical evolution of university education in Nigeria, past glory and performances, vis-à-vis recent inclinations and experiences, there have been serious reservations about the role and relevance of Nigerian universities and other tertiary education institutions to the national development. Accordingly, the discussions in this paper convey some retrospective and prospective reflections on University Education in Nigeria in relation to National Development.

The chapter will be structured into 6 sections. The first is the introduction followed by Section 2 that highlights the role of universities in national development. Section 3 discusses the evolution of university education in Nigeria and its contributions to national development. The current state of the quality of university education in Nigeria is presented in Section 4. Section 5 briefly discusses the expected role(s) of university education in Nigeria going forward. Section 6 appraises the factors that undermine the quality of Nigerian universities while Section 7 concludes the chapter.

#### **2. The role of the university in development**

Historically, the first medieval university was at Salerno, Italy, in the 9th century, followed by the University of Paris in the second half of the 12th century and subsequently Oxford and Cambridge in the European continent. At the very beginning, universities exist as associations or guilds for learning particular crafts, and later became institutions for the creation and dispersion of knowledge. And as knowledge comes to replace other resources as the main driver of economic growth, and education increasingly become the foundation for individual prosperity and social mobility; the role of the universities became more pronounced and fundamental. Thus, universities became widely recognized and linked with research, information transfer, and technology development.

As universities pursue their missions of generation, dissemination, advancement and application of knowledge, they have become of significant importance in the service of the society at the local, regional and international levels. Universities are been looked up to for proper and adequate human capital development, the structural transformation of an economy, technological innovation, forging of democratic citizenship, social cohesion, nation building, and preserving the earth. Indeed, there is growing evidence that university education, through its roles in empowering domestic constituencies, building institutions, and nurturing favorable regulatory frameworks and governance structures, is vital to a country's efforts to increase social capital and to promote social mobility and cohesion, are proving to be an important determinant of economic growth and development.

From the forgoing and summarily, the main functions of universities in the development process at whatever level include to: (i) serve as repositories and generators of knowledge; (ii) prepare and equip graduates so that they can obtain viable employment; (iii) offer rational and timely criticisms in areas of public policy and social and economic life; (iv) serve as large and influential bodies in civil society and the state; and (v) produce graduates to foster cohesive and tolerant communities.

Specifically, Otonko [1], identified the benefits derivable from a good and functional university education system to include: (i) the rapid industrialization of the economy, by providing manpower with adequate professional, technical and managerial skills, (ii) boost the transformation of societies into knowledge societies, by providing not just educated workers, but knowledge workers who will contribute immensely to the growth of the economy, (iii) instill good attitudes and engenders attitudinal changes that are necessary for the socialization of the individuals, thereby, leading to the modernization and overall transformation of the society, (iv) help through teaching and concise research, in the creation, absorption, dissemination and application of knowledge, and (v) the formation of a strong nation- state and at the same time aids globalization, and (vi) allow people to enjoy an enhanced life of mind', offering the wider society both cultural and political benefit.

#### *Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109454*

At the empirical level, Egorov et al. [2] study demonstrated that universities are fully-fledged economic agents which make positive contributions to gross regional product (GRP) growth in Russia. They, therefore, concluded that the development of regional higher education systems would lead to a positive effect on regional economic development. Goldstein et al. [3] enumerated eight sources of the impact of HEI on GRP, namely, knowledge creation, human capital creation, the transfer of know-how, technological innovation, capital investment, regional leadership, influence on environment, and knowledge infrastructure production.

#### **3. University education and national development in Nigeria**

The advent of university education in Nigeria is traced to the Elliot Commission of 1943, which culminated in the establishment of the University College Ibadan (UCI) in 1948. The UCI was an affiliate of the University of London. By the late 1950s, it became apparent that Nigeria would need more universities to cater to the many secondary school graduates. In April 1959, the Ashby Commission (The Commission on Post-School Certificate and Higher Education) completed a comprehensive research on the state of education in Nigeria. Several recommendations were provided by the Ashby Commission including the establishment of more universities. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka was later established in October 1960, a few days after Nigeria gained its independence, making it the first autonomous and full-fledged university in Nigeria.

Several universities followed suit. Ahmadu Bello University was established in 1962. In the same year, two more universities were established in Nigeria – the University of Ife, Ife-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and the University of Lagos, Lagos. These five universities are collectively referred to as the first-generation universities. Following recommendations from Nigeria's Third Development Plan, seven more universities were founded in 1975. These are the universities of Port Harcourt; Ilorin; Kano; Calabar; Jos; Maiduguri and Sokoto.

From 1979, State governments started establishing State Universities. In 1999, the law prohibiting non-federal and state entities from establishing universities was abolished, paving way for the creation of private owned universities. The first private universities to receive licenses are Babcock, Madonna and Igbinedion Universities in 1999. Currently, there are 170 universities in Nigeria (See **Table 1**) comprising 49 Federal Universities, 59 State Universities and 111 private Universities.

Universities in Nigeria were expected to be key contributors to the human resource needs of the countries. Initially, there was a particular focus on the development of human resources for the civil service and the public professions. This was to address the acute shortages in these areas that were the result of the gross underdevelopment of universities under colonialism, and the departure of colonial administrators and professionals following independence. The major purpose for establishing universities in these countries was, and still is, for the institutions to play a pioneering role in addressing problems of poverty, social disorganization, low production, unemployment, hunger, illiteracy, diseases, that is, the problems of underdevelopment, which appeared to be common on the African continent.

Otonko [1] provided a good summary and specifics of how university education in Nigeria has contributed to national development. According to him, they have and still providing not only the high-level skills necessary for every labor market but also the training essential for teachers, doctors, nurses, civil servants, engineers, humanists, entrepreneurs, scientists, social scientists, and a myriad of other personnel.


*Four Regional/State Universities in existence by 1974 which the Federal Government took over in 1975 should be subtracted from the vertical Region/State and Total columns. Source: Author (based on information available on the website of National Universities Commission). The list is the current and valid one for the year 2022 (updated with NUC on 30/10/2022).*

#### **Table 1.**

*Distribution of the 170 Nigerian universities by ownership as at October 2022.*

These trained individuals are engaged in developing the capacity and analytical skills that drive local economies, support civil society, teach children, lead effective governments, and make important decisions which affect the entire country. In addition, and notably too, the university education in Nigeria has led to the development of many Nigerians into sound and effective citizens through higher self-awareness and self-realization of individuals at various tasks, enhanced better human relationships, national consciousness and effective citizenship. The universities in Nigeria have also by and large enhanced social, cultural, economic, political, scientific and technological progress in Nigeria. The country is more blessed now with specialists at various fields of endeavor: medicine, law, engineering, philosophy, education, etc. and thereby making the nation become more and more dynamic and self-reliant as the days go by. University education has also been on the vanguard of creating opportunities for the teeming Nigerian population towards building the desired united and egalitarian country that encourages every Nigerian to contribute to the development or upliftment of the country. The university education has continually churned out scholars who have contributed meaningfully to the world's reservoir of knowledge.

However, it has been observed that university education in Nigeria has performed very poorly in terms of focus on innovative works and entrepreneurship as well as the commercialization of research findings. This is because they have continued to focus only on their traditional role of training scholars and leaders, but remained weak in the practical application of knowledge and are unable to respond to the demands of the job market. In addition, there is the growing worry on the fallen and falling standards of university education in Nigeria.

*Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109454*

#### **4. Current state of the quality of university education in Nigeria**

Universally, the quality of university education is often assessed via a set of four (4) connected indicators. These are "*quality teachers", "quality students", "an enabling environment for learning"; and 'international competitiveness*'. Good quality university education features world class teachers and researchers who invest in one another through stimulating lectures, seminars, workshops, conferences, and other academic activities. Historical recollections indicated that Nigerian premier universities started out this way1 , but today though with exceptions here and there, most Nigerian universities (including the old ones) suffer from poor quality teaching at the instance of low quality of lecturers and substandard research outputs. Indeed, Nigerian universities are noted to relatively under perform on research in the continent. Nigeria's universities produce only 44% of the scholarly output of South Africa and 32% of Egypt. This is despite that Nigeria has nearly four times more universities than Egypt and over six times more than South Africa. On the whole, universities in Nigeria lag well behind equivalent global economies like South Africa, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey and Brazil. They also lag behind traditional world leaders. This, therefore, makes the general national outlook very discouraging and disheartening.

While efforts at improving on the quality of the students that are fed into the university at the instance the declining quality in elementary and secondary schools are recognized, however, there are still significant lapses. Many universities, particularly, privately owned ones admit students on very low scores (120 out of 400 marks, 30 per cent pass mark) in the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) qualifying examination. This constitute a significant problem. Moreover, Nigerian universities loses local talents and fails to replace them. According to data of UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), Nigeria is the number one country of origin for international students from Africa, as she sends the most students overseas of any country on the African continent, and outbound mobility numbers are growing at a rapid pace. **Figure 1** shows that the number of Nigeria students abroad increased by 164 per cent in the decade between 2005 and 2015 alone from 26, 997 to 71,351. **Figure 2** shows the trend for the three (3) major choice destinations from 2014/15–2020/21. Both figures show significant number of outbound students'

#### **Figure 1.**

*Number of outbound Nigerian students between 2005 and 2015. Sources: IRCC (CA), IIE/open doors (US), HESA (UK).*

<sup>1</sup> It is documented in Ojudu [4] that by 1980 University of Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University earned global recognition for research in tropical health and agriculture, respectively.

#### **Figure 2.**

*Applications and admissions into Nigerian universities, 1978–2019. Source: National Bureau of statistics (NBS) and the joint admissions and matriculation board (JAMB).*

overtime. In contrast, the system fails to attract the equivalent in foreign students as foreign students are few in Nigerian Universities. So, there has been "brain drain" rather than "brain exchange".

The environment for learning is becoming more and more un-enabling. Even though universities are mushrooming all over the place, but most of them are lame right from birth, while older ones are wallowing in crumbled and still crumbling basic infrastructure and facilities. Indeed, most universities are ill-equipped. A survey by the National Universities Commission (NUC) records that only about 30 per cent of Nigeria student population have adequate access to classrooms, lecturer theaters, laboratories, workshops and libraries. According to the University Systems Chronicler, over 70 per cent of the laboratory equipment and library books in today's Nigeria universities were bought and placed between 1960 and 1980. Other necessary amenities such as electricity, water, good hostel accommodation and medical care are also inadequate.

In international competitiveness, Nigerian universities rank very low in world university ranking (see **Table 2**). Only one Nigerian university, the University of Ibadan (UI), was listed among the first 1000 universities in the world by the Center for World University Ranking in 2018/ 2019. Even at this, the position UI occupies in the ranking says a lot about the discouraging state of university education inn Nigeria. More instructively, of the 14 African Universities that featured in the in the top 1000 of the Center for World University Ranking of 2018/2019, Nigeria performed poorly relative to South Africa and Egypt. Indeed, the first five leading universities in Africa


*Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109454*

**Table 2.**

 *The 14 African countries listed in top 1000 of the 2018/19 university ranking by Center for World University Ranking.* are in South Africa, followed by two others from Egypt. Summarily, of the 14 universities, South Africa had 7, Egypt 4, while Uganda, Tunisia and Nigeria had 1 university each. Retrospectively, Nigerian universities in the 70s were said to be among the best in Africa and the world. So beautiful and attractive were the institutions then that other Africans came to study in Nigeria. In those glorious days, Nigerian universities were proud producers of great graduates (**Table 2**).

#### **5. Expected roles of university education in Nigeria**

Undoubtedly, Nigeria given the vast potentials she possesses and the myriads of challenges faced (high and widespread poverty, high unemployment rate, significant infrastructural deficits, low technological development/slow technological adoption, poor governance and leadership across all strata of government layers, increasing internal conflicts, etc.) need university education system towards the achievement of development goals and the transformation to become an industrialized sufficiently high-income country providing high quality life for all its citizens.

To start with, the universities still have an essential role in conducting meaningful, particularly cutting-edge researches and trainings of highly qualified personnel. The Universities remain the active promoters of the innovation culture at the regional and international level. Higher education can enhance economic development through technological catch-up, by helping economies gain ground on more technologically advanced societies. Investing in tertiary in Nigeria will accelerate technological diffusion, which would decrease knowledge gaps and help reduce poverty in the country. The development of infrastructure is a vital component in steering the country's development agenda. Universities have a primary role in empowering Nigerians with expert knowledge to work on infrastructure in their own country.

More importantly, the universities remain critical and immense significance of serving as the intellectual citadel where political discourse occurs and ideologies pertinent to policy formulation are generated. It is necessary that dysfunctional systems of the past are replaced with new value systems that will repair the emaciated social fabric. Universities can assist in this by developing individuals committed to democratic values and human rights.

Hence, the imperative and continued need for sustaining university education for national development in the country.

#### **6. Factors undermining the quality of Nigerian universities**

The factors undermining quality in Nigeria universities are serious and disquieting. The declining quality and standard of university education in Nigeria is palpable. Nigerian universities have failed to deliver the expected and contemporary quality education due to a number of factors. The major factors include:

#### **6.1 Inadequate funding**

Generally, education is poorly funded in Nigeria. **Figure 3** shows the budgetary allocation to education as percentage of government total budget spanning about three decades from 1992 to 2019. It could be seen that the United Nations Educational, *Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109454*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Budgetary allocation to education as % of Total budget in Nigeria, 1992–2022. Source: CBN statistical bulletin, various issues.*

Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommendation that between 15 and 20% of a nation's budget be allocated to the educational sector was seldom met.

The poor funding of education directly translates to poor funding of universities especially with the increase in their numbers over time. For instance, it is noted that the Federal Government of Nigeria's budget for 50 Federal Universities and UBE (Universal Basic Education) was N495, 456,130, 065 which translated to 40.88% of the budget allocation of California State University, USA for that year.

Thus, a major constraint to quality and attainment of academic excellence in Nigerian universities is financial constraints resulting in many academics and nonacademics working under difficult circumstances. Indeed, many universities are unable to build lecture halls, students' hostels, provide decent and functional offices for teaching staff, equip laboratories and workshops and pay entitlements, allowances, and medical bills and provide research grants.

#### **6.2 Inadequate and poor-quality teaching staff**

Most universities in Nigeria are short of lecturers to adequately handle teaching and learning activities, due to inadequate funding to employ adequate number of lecturers. The student-lecturer ratio in the Nigerian university system is very high in contradiction to global practice of quality education. In most of the top 200 universities in the world, the staff-student ratios are amazingly low and good. Indeed, for the top universities in the world, the staff-student ratios are as follows: California Institute of Technology and University of Chicago, both in the USA have 6:9; University of Oxford has 11:6, while Harvard has 8:9 student-lecturer ratio. In contrast, many universities in Nigeria have student-lecturer ratios of 300:1 or more. Given this scenario, it is evident that the few available lecturers are seriously over worked. Owing to the shortage of lecturers, academic programmes in many universities are not accredited by the National Universities Commission. Bamiro [5] linked the observed and increasing problem of de-intellectualization of the academia to low quality of staff in some institutions of higher learning in Nigeria. He asserted that where there is inadequate teaching staff and poor quality of lecturers, the attainment of good quality in higher education will be difficult.

Most universities in Nigeria lack staff development programme for training and re-training of staff. However, in this era of knowledge explosion and emergent knowledge-based economy, staff development is of paramount importance. Vibrant staff development programmes on a continuous basis will help academics and non-academics to clarify and modify their behavior, attitude, value, skills and competencies [6].

#### **6.3 Frequent labour disputes and closures of universities**

A big challenge to quality university education in Nigeria is the incessant staff union disputes and subsequent closures of the institutions. Financial crises between the various staff unions and the government, students' excesses like riot, and other issues that lead to strike and temporary shut-down of universities. **Table 3** shows that labour disputes and closures of universities have characterized the system since 1980s. These closures have overtime resulted in disruption of academic activities, loss of time and academic sessions, unstable academic calendar, delayed implementation of development policies, drop in productivity, uncertainty on the terminal point of programmes, poor quality of graduates and brain-drain with the system (both of students and faculty).

#### **6.4 Brain drain**

Brain drain is a common problem in Nigerian universities dating back to the military era. It is estimated that Nigeria lost a total number of 10, 000 professionals from different higher institutions between 1986 and 1990 [7]. This is occurring much more frequently lately as universities lose talents in academia to other fields for economic or political reasons. Brilliant lecturers leave the frustrations of universities for more rewarding sectors or seek better opportunities outside the country.

Brain drain has distorted the organizational structures of some Nigerian universities. In most cases, brain drain has placed the academic departments of the Nigerian universities in a state of chaos and no direction. Many departments of Nigerian universities have lost the top-middle cadre of their lecturers to brain drain, while most of the junior lecturers were left behind. More instructively, many Nigerian scholars who traveled for their doctorate degree abroad were employed by their host universities, and chances that they will come back to fill the vacuum left in Nigeria is very minimal ([8], p. 2–4).

#### **6.5 Poor governance and leadership**

Despite the centrality of good governance to the success of universities, most Nigeria universities are facing a governance crisis that often manifests itself in terms of conflict between management and students and staff that flares up from time to time over issues such as living allowances, pay, terms and conditions of service, limited representation in university governing bodies and perception of university authority as defender of state interests as opposed to the interests of the university [9]. Existing evidence shows that the principles of good governance are routinely flouted with great frequency in many African countries and particularly, Nigeria [10–12], resulting in poor governance. In particular, regular political interference,


*Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109454*

#### **Table 3.**

*Chronicle of Strikes ASUU and SSANU in Nigerian universities 1988–2018.*

especially in public universities, makes adherence to the principles of good governance a near impossibility [10].

An ancillary challenge closely associated with the declining quality in the university system is the syndrome of *"sexual molestation" and/or "grades for gratification"* that has become very rampant. A recent British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) investigative expositions and other news reportage confirmed this. Imperatively, this syndrome must be checkmated before it festers further. The ongoing efforts by the National Assembly to pass a Bill to officially criminalize these acts and make offenders serve deserving punishment is recognized and commendable.

#### **6.6 Wrong advice and leadership weaknesses**

In the two turbulent decades between the 1980s and 1990s, higher education in Nigeria faced a period of dramatic structural change and financial and governance crises. At the same time, the sector experienced uncoordinated expansion amid dilapidated infrastructure, deteriorating working conditions, low staff morale, worsening academic quality standards, staggering budget deficits, all compounded with phenomenal enrolment increases and the continuing ravaging impacts of the historic brain drain phenomenon.

The systematic neglect and rot of Nigerian universities intensified and acquired the status of official policy during 1980s and 1990s and up till date based entirely on the flawed presumption and external advice that university education in sub-Saharan Africa yielded no clear impacts on social equity, economic growth, or poverty reduction. Unfortunately, the leadership of these countries, particularly Nigeria took to this non-evidence based and ill-informed advice and drastically cut the budgetary allocation to university education. However, international institutions, and other major development organizations and industrialized countries have now recognized that higher education and knowledge production are critical for rapid economic development in every country.

#### **6.7 Supply and demand imbalance**

A major challenge is the demand imbalance principally as a result of the burgeoning population of the country which is now put at 201million going by the latest estimates of the World Bank, with over 60% under the age of 25 years. Given these dynamics, there has been increasing demand for university education which has not been met. **Figure 2** shows the trend in applications for admission into universities and the number admitted from 1978/79 session to 2018/19 session, with wider gaps in more recent years. Indeed, there is an everincreasing demand for placements but universities are constrained by institutional carrying capacity for placements of applicants. **Figure 4** shows the percentage of applicants that gets admitted yearly. Going by the figure, not up to 40% of the applicants get admitted in any 1 year except for the 2003/2004 academic session.

There is also the problem of access in addition to that of quality in the nation's university system. While the Open University and the Distance Learning initiatives

#### **Figure 4.**

*Percentage of applicants that gets admitted into Nigerian universities, 1978–2019. National Bureau of statistics (NBS) and the joint admissions and matriculation board (JAMB).*

*Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109454*

are recognized and commendable, however, their quality are doubtful given that their operations and programmes delivery depend largely on the faculty members of fulltime universities. There is, therefore, the need for more creativity with the university system on more effective ways to particularly increase access for the teeming prospective applicants for placement in the university.

#### **7. Summary and conclusions**

Retrospectively, Nigerian universities (in the 1970s) were said to be among the best in Africa and the world. So beautiful and attractive were these institutions then that other Africans came to study in Nigeria in those glorious days. They practiced the idea of universality of universities characterized by the embodiment of *"quality teachers", "quality students", "an enabling environment for learning"; and 'international competitiveness*'. All four factors combined to ensure that Nigeria had world-class universities then. However, over the past three decades, beginning in the 1980s, with fewer resources, inadequate capacity and a history of neglect among other challenges, quality was knocked off the system consequently raising serious questions about the contributions and relevance of Nigerian universities and other tertiary education institutions to national development. One of the main issues facing the university system is its research and innovation capacity and the ability to use these for the country's transformation.

Several of the factors undermining quality in Nigeria universities and some other subsisting challenges were identified and explained. The conclusion from the reflections contained in this paper is that the universities were once glorious and contributed to the development of the country, and are still relevant and needed for the socio-economic and political development of the country. In view of that, the paper posits that there is the need to strength them to have the desired and comparative international quality and functionality necessary to meeting the requirements and challenges of Nigeria's development agenda or the future. To remain strong, relevant and have maximum impact, universities must reorient their mandate and usefulness in the twenty-first century society.

To recreate quality and functional university system in Nigeria, we recommend the following:

The Government should:


needs to be halted to appropriate and maximize the future potentials of these students to the advantage of the country's development. In particular, there is need to put in place measures that will reduce brain drain of faculties in the university system to help reduce the exit of skilled manpower out of the country. This will involve adequate compensation of skills. It is wasteful to use public funds to train high-level manpower and for such manpower to then be "drained" by attractive external bodies and countries.


The University System should:


#### *Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109454*

and adequately exposed through seminars, workshops, attendance at conferences (both at local and international arena), collaborative researches and mentorship. Hence, the need for a comprehensive and all-inclusive staff development programmes covering every staff in the university for free and on a regular basis.


The Industry should

• *Forge collaboration with Universities*: The private sector must also reach out to universities to strengthen links between universities and businesses. A strong productive private sector requires robust input from universities and other institutions of higher education for knowledge generation and skill development of the workforce. Industry must collaborate with the university system by sponsoring and financing researches that are potentially beneficial to their operations, profitability and growth.

• *Create opportunities for internship for staff and students:* Industry should also assist the university system with opportunities for staff and student visiting programme/industrial attachment; and development and resources for staff development, and infrastructural as well as programme development.

### **Author details**

Emmanuel Nnadozie1 , Afeikhena Jerome2 and Omo Aregbeyen3 \*

1 African Capacity Building Fund (ACBF), Harare, Zimbabwe

2 Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, African Union Commission, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

3 Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

\*Address all correspondence to: omoaregbeyen@gmail.com

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Perspective Chapter: Sustaining University Education for and National Development in Nigeria DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109454*

#### **References**

[1] Otonko J. University education in Nigeria: History, successes, failures and the way forward. International Journal of Technology and Inclusive Education (IJTIE). 2012;**1**(2):44-48

[2] Egorov AA, Leshukov OV, Gromov AD. The role of universities in economic development of Russian regions. In: Basic Research Program, Working Papers Series: Education WP BRP 41/EDU/2017. Moscow, Russia: National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE); 2017

[3] Goldstein HA, Maier G, Luger MI. The university as an instrument for economic and business development: U.S. and European comparisons. In: Dill DD, Sporn B, editors. Emerging Patterns of Social Demand and University Reform: Through a Glass Darkly. Oxford, UK: Pergamon; 1995. pp. 105-133

[4] Ojudu B. Leadership and the Challenges of Higher Education in Nigeria. Being the Fifth Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities. Abeokuta: Federal University of Agriculture; 2012 (SSANU-FUNAAB) Distinguished lecture on 31st of October, 2012

[5] Bamiro. The Nigerian University System and the Challenges of Relevance. Akoka-Lagos: Convocation Lecture University of Lagos; 2012

[6] Asiyai RI, Oghuvbu EP. An empirical analysis of the causes and possible solutions to decline in quality of tertiary education in Delta state, Nigeria. Journal of Sociology and Education in Africa. 2009;**8**(2):1-13

[7] Chigozie AC. Understanding Brain Drain in Nigerian Universities [thesis]. Dissertation in Development Studies. Sweden: Department of Sociology, Graduate School, Lund University; 2014

[8] Adebayo A. Brain drain-brain gain: Leveraging the Nigerian diaspora for the revitalization of Nigerian higher education. In: Paper Presented at the 25th Conference of the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian University, held at Osun State University, Osogbo. 2010

[9] Mwiria K. University Governance: Problems and Perspectives in Anglophone Africa". AFTED Technical Note, No. 3. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank; 1992

[10] Kauffeldt JK. The Commission for Higher Education in Kenya: A Case Study Regarding the Establishment, Role and Operations of an Intermediary Body in the Higher Education System of a Developing Nation. An unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Canada: University of Toronto; 2009

[11] Obondo AT. Politics of Participatory Decision-Making: The Case of Kenyatta University and the University of Nairobi. French Institute for Research in Africa; 2000 Les Cashiers, Review no 19, November-December

[12] Task Force on Higher Education and Society. Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise. Washington, DC: Task Force on Higher Education and Society, World Bank; 2000

### **Chapter 17**

## Perspective Chapter: Artifact Remains in Indonesia as an Object of Field Study of Learning Media for the History of Indonesian Fine Arts Course

*Iswahyudi*

### **Abstract**

Education is basically a social institution that functions as organized intelligence or becomes the center of various intelligences that are organized to serve the existing social system. As an integral part of that process, educational media is something that every professional teacher must master. In addition, educational media can be used as an effective means of communication in order to obtain an interactive teaching and learning process. One of the media for art education, both symbolic and aesthetic. Symbolic artifacts can be categorized in non-formal aspects because they are more general in nature and prioritize the value of symbols. Artifacts that are aesthetic in nature are categorized as formal because they are more specifically as works of art. They are objects made by humans in the past that are considered to have symbolic and aesthetic value. The reason that is basis of this writing is because of the existence of artifacts in various forms which are historical relics as it is known that there are many in various regions in Indonesia.

**Keywords:** artifacts, educational media, fine arts history, Indonesia, field studies

### **1. Introduction**

Education is basically a social institution that functions as organized intelligence or becomes the center of various intelligences that are organized to serve existing social systems. As an integral part of that process, educational media is something that must be mastered by every professional teacher. In addition, educational media can be used as an effective means of communication in order to obtain an interactive teaching and learning process [1]. One of the fine art education media both symbolic and aesthetic. Symbolic artifacts can be categorized in the non-formal aspect because they are more general in nature and prioritize symbolic values. The aesthetic artifacts are categorized as formal because they are more specific works of art.

In line with these two meanings, non-formal and formal approaches emerge in analyzing effect. In this case, the non-formal and formal approaches to artifacts are compatible with the structural approach. This assumption was influenced by structuralist thinking which initially developed in France and America in the 1960s [2]. In this approach, there is a tendency to transform artifacts as clear evidence of the presence of works of art with the results of creation or the artist's thought processes. This approach aims to interpret artifacts not only from aesthetic principles which are used as empirical normative aspects but are developed into theoretical concepts.

Among the various structural theories, there is one that is used, namely the analogy method. As stated by Barrett that basically art has similarities in terms of the rules of science, including concepts, procedures, and criteria [3]. This analogy method also supports evaluative aspects, as well as totality coverage forms. This includes various artifacts that have ideological, aesthetic, psychological, cultural, and philosophical aspects. The construct of this relationship cannot be separated from the three accompanying components, namely the artist, the work, and the appreciation.

The development of artifacts as visual media is actually an evolutionary development of human creativity. So in this case creativity is a historical command of a civilization. The development in this case is not distinguished between primitive patterned artifacts and modern patterned artifacts but viewed from the aspect of formalism. This aspect demands more internal coherence which limits itself to the form of the artifact [4]. So in this case, primitive and modern are no longer distinguished into low culture and high culture [5], but because of their exclusive attitude, they are seen as curious and civilized.

#### **2. Visual media in non-formal aspects**

Talks about artifacts in the non-formal category in terms of substance are mostly associated with other factors. According to Martin & Jacobus, each type of artwork has an equal value and is always related. In addition, in terms of aesthetics, it is not only enjoyed but can increase awareness of ourselves and our world together [6]. This non-formal approach has been refuted and considered inappropriate, especially for artifacts from the pre-nineteenth century and mystical ones, for example, from the East [7].

When returned to its cathartic nature, artifacts cannot be seen based on realistic assumptions but also from their functional values, so an interdisciplinary approach is needed outside of aesthetics as an auxiliary science. This approach is actually more focused on the first component, namely the artist, so it is often referred to as the genetic approach [8]. By trying to understand artifacts as a medium for art education, there is a possibility that the development of Indonesian art can be studied through these various methods and theories. This is based on the fact that many of the artifacts were self-produced by the Indonesian people along with their historical journey, from prehistoric times from Homo Sapiens to the present.

In prehistoric times, artifacts can be divided into permanent artifacts such as cave art and smaller artifacts that are mobile art. These various artifacts have very high and noble cultural values because they can be used to determine someone's skills. The sculpted artifacts always imitate the object with expressive linear strokes and with primary or neutral colors so that magical impressions are obtained. As Plato said, seeing an imitation can evoke feelings in him [9]. So in this case mimesis is still placed as the main driving force of creation, even though natural phenomena are still accepted

#### *Perspective Chapter: Artifact Remains in Indonesia as an Object of Field Study of Learning… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109219*

instinctively and are usually expressed with geometric lines in abstract form. In this case, the value of transformation can be found not in the lines and colors used as a means of developing techniques. But more concerned with practical purposes. This assumption can be equated with the theories of primitive science, namely in a power called sympathetic magic [10].

Turning to the historical period, visual media points more to the development of creativity and high aesthetic value. Along with the emergence of the institution of the kingdoms resulted in artistic life getting protection. Borrowing Norbert's theory, it can be said that with the stability of the king's power, civilization will become more refined, giving rise to classical values in its cultural products [11]. In line with the iconography that prevailed in this classical era, art must adhere to two Great traditions, namely Hindu-Buddhist or Indian and Islamic. The formation process begins with culture borrowing which is then developed with the creativity of the Indonesian people themselves. The most commonly known visual media are temple buildings and their supporting devices [12]. As a building that has an important meaning, the temple is indeed difficult to find its exact counterparts except in India so various components must be rooted in Indian traditions.

In its development, there are two different styles, namely the Central Javanese style and the East Javanese style. The East Java period coincided with the entry of direct cultural flows from India, namely Amaravati art in the II-III AD centuries, Gupta art in the IV-VI centuries, Pallawa art in 500 - 750 AD, and Pala art in 700–900 AD [13]. These characteristics can be seen in Buddhist temples that accept elements of Gupta and Pala art (northwest India). In Hindu temples, it looks more influenced by the Chalukya and Pala or South Indian patterns [14]. The most common feature found in the temples of Central Java is the existence of Silpasastra as initially seen in the Dieng temples and the Gedongsongo temples. In this case, the most appropriate example is the Arjuno temple because it has flat and wide feet, the upper part of the body of the temple is shaped like a cube and the roof is also similar to the arrangement of the cubes, the higher the size the smaller the cube.

In contrast to the temples of the East Java style, which no longer accept the direct flow of Indian culture, in this case, it seems to show a decadence or degeneration. This view is paradoxical because changes in the East Javanese style indicate a local development or what is often called local genius. Compared to the Central Java temples which show a stronger impression of the building due to their chubby shape, East Java temples are generally slimmer and are always accompanied by horizontal frames, as if evenly distributed and merged into elements of art. more elaborate buildings and decorations.

Krom and Stutterheim believe that the change from the Central Javanese to the East Javanese style was not caused by the loss of quality associated with the decline of Indian influence but by the reappearance of native Indonesian elements. This is a reminder that art that serves religion as a measure is not a beauty and splendor but rather a function whose religious value must be accepted [15].

The most interesting moment during this East Java period was the union of Shiva and Buddhism, which in this case had never happened in India. The relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism in the East Java period was very close because both of them could live side by side so that both were made the state religion. In the development of these two religions, especially from the reign of the Singasari kingdom until the Majapahit kingdom, they were united as the state religion by way of syncretism or Tantrayana [16]. Hinduism and Buddhism as religions that both originate from India are known to have harmonious similarities, especially in terms of their

conception of divinity. This is shown in the conception of divinity contained in Saiva Siddhanta and Mahayana Buddhism, which are a school of Shivaism and Buddhism that influence each other in Indonesia [17]. In Saiva Siddhanta, there is a single Tri or three highest truths called Siva-tattva, Sadasiva-taatva, and Mahesa-tattva. Each of these tattvas is represented by Paramasiva with his Niskala realm, Sadasiva with his Niskala-Savala realm, and Mahecvara with his Sakala realm. Furthermore, from Siva-tattva which is passive, five active cakti are derived, namely Paracakti, Adicakti, Icha-cakti, Jnana-cakti, and Kriya-cakti. Then the five cakti and Paramasiva will manifest themselves as Sadasiva-tattva and Maheca-taatva.

The Trinity or the three truths in the Mahayana book are Buddha, Vajrasatva, and Avalokitesvara. Each of them is in Dharma-kaya, Sambbhoga-kaya, and Nirmanakaya. Furthermore, Buddha or Adi Buddha is also said to manifest himself in Pancatathagta (located in Barabudur) namely Wairocana, Aksobya, Ratnasambhawa, Amitabha, Amoghasidi. To strengthen their position, the five Tathagatas were also given cakti, which is called Pancatathagatadewi (in Jago temple), namely Bharali Dhatvisvari, Bharali Locana, Bharali Mamaki, Bharali Pandarawasini, and Bharali Tarasakti [18]. From the same basic conception of the Godhead of the two schools, I.B. The Mantra concludes that Dharma-kaya is parallel to Niskala, Sambbhoga-kaya is parallel to Sakala-Niskala and Nirmana-kaya is parallel to Shiva Buddha. With the existence of this same principle, if it is not supported by an atmosphere of harmonious relations among its adherents, then syncretism will not be realized. This can be proven by the situation in India which reminds us that Buddha himself is the avatar of Vishnu [19]. This attitude of tolerance was reflected during the reign of the Singasari – Majapahit kingdom, namely by the existence of temples and literary books.

Tolerance is displayed very harmoniously in the temple buildings, for example, seen in Candi Jago where the reliefs show a background of Hinduism and Buddhism. Reliefs that are Hindu in nature are shown by the stories of Partayajna, Arjuna Wiwaha, and Krsnayana while Buddhist characteristics are shown by the existence of reliefs of animal stories (Tantri) and Kunjarakarna [20, 21]. Furthermore, Jawi temple can be said as the result of a perfect blend of Hindu-Buddhist. This is indicated by the presence of Hindu statues, namely Nandiswara, Durga, Brahma, Ganesha, and Nandi at the bottom of the temple. Meanwhile, the nature of Buddha is indicated by the presence of a roof in the form of a stupa or dagoba.

The peak of other developments includes those found in the reliefs, which in this case are carved in a bas-relief manner. This sculpture shows its decorative nature by depicting figures that are not naturalist in proportion but are slanted (enprofile). Van Stein Calenfels said that the relief form became flatter or thinner until the end of the East Java period. The reliefs that developed at that time had two styles, namely the wayang style or style based on the Ramayana - Mahabharata story and the kakawin style based on kakawin stories, speech, and wawacan. In addition to these two styles, Van Stein Calenfels also still distinguishes the relief form which is not based on the two styles [22]. This difference is based on its simple form because it depends on the place where the temple was built. The temples that were erected in the palace complex area reflect the luxurious and majestic reliefs known as the palace style. Then the type of temple that is located far from the palace, which in this case is usually found in a hermitage, has a simpler relief form so it is often called a mandala-style relief.

The end of Hindu civilization in Java at the end of the fifteenth century was preceded by a new civilization, namely Islam. The development of art, which had reached its peak, became a dilemma where people at that time had to build sacred buildings that were not allowed to depict living creatures. Something unique

#### *Perspective Chapter: Artifact Remains in Indonesia as an Object of Field Study of Learning… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109219*

possessed by the artists at that time was that a change in culture was not responded to with an attitude of surprise but instead caused them to be more creative.

In this case, the Mantingan mosque turban complex represents the transition period from the Hindu-Buddhist religion to Islam. In the Mantingan mosque, there are two relief panels carved on a piece of stone on two sides back and forth. The first panel contains scenes of the characters Rama and Laksmana accompanied by the panakawan while the second panel depicts a lotus pond whose leaves and flowers are arranged beautifully so that it seems to form the body of an elephant. An easy guess is that the first panel was made at an earlier time than the second panel. This is because the Islamic leaders in Mantingan have taken a middle way where they do not dare to eliminate the reliefs of the Ramayana without any replacement reliefs. Then they deliberately began to shift the theme to depict animal bodies with stiliran shapes and arrangements of Lotus leaves and flowers.

Islam in its further development after its position became established has many artifacts in the form of buildings that are sacred in the form of mosques and tombs, while those that are secular are palace buildings. The mosque as it is known is a building for the worship of Muslims. In Islam, there are no rules regarding forms or spaces and rooms that must be applied to a mosque building so there is no universal mosque building structure. The various forms of existing mosques usually reflect architectural traditions and architectural elements from outside religions [23, 24]. Based on this, then known mosque buildings of Arabic, Turkish, Indonesian, and so on.

Broadly speaking, mosques in Indonesia have special characteristics, including: 1. Having a perimeter fence with one main door, 2. Having a square floor plan, 3. Having a porch in front of or beside the main prayer room, 4. Having a mihrab, 5. The roof is overlapping.

Tomb architecture is the most common artifact remains in Indonesia. Graves are always associated with one of the cycles of human life, namely birth, life, and death. Death in the Islamic sense is a human journey toward life in the hereafter which in this case takes place through two stages, namely the waiting period in the grave and eternal life. As it is known that Islam as a divine religion has the concept of homo equalism, namely that each individual is responsible for all his actions and the existence of life after death [25].

From this Islamic conception of death, Islamic tombs usually contain calligraphy writing which generally reminds people of the existence of life after death. These calligraphic writings usually quote the letter Al-Baqarah verse 196 which contains warnings about death, the last day, and forgiveness. This verse is often called Ayat Kursi which is usually also intended as a starting point for rescuing people who have died. Judging from the architectural form of the arrangement of Islamic tombs in Indonesia which consists of a grave in the form of a room where the body is placed and above it, there is a tomb in the form of a rectangular building facing north-south. Some of these buildings are flat and some are tiered. From the aesthetic point of view, the tomb is a manifestation of the artist's work in the form of carvings and architectural forms carved on the maesan, jirat and cupola.

The Kraton building as a secular building is a central part and center of activity which is located adjacent to the mosque as a religious center. These buildings were found in many Islamic Javanese kingdoms which were located inseparable from the main square as a gathering place for many people, mosques, and markets [26, 27]. Then for palaces outside Java, they have different shapes, for example, in Aceh, which mostly faces north. Around the palace there are religious buildings, namely in the northwest there is a mosque and in the east, there is a religious court. In Medan, there

is the Deli Sultanate palace which looks similar to the palaces of the Moghul kings in India. Deli Palace is different from other palaces because of the existence of the square which is to the east of the palace and the location of the mosque is far from the palace. Likewise the Ternate palace is located east of the square and mosque is to the south of the palace.

#### **3. Visual media in formal aspect**

Artifacts, apart from having to be discussed with functional values, can also be digested in terms of form because they are useful for measuring their aesthetic content. It must be admitted that in addition to the beauty obtained, it also requires a certain technique to make it happen. So in this case, the artifact must be viewed formally according to the applicable criteria. The formalistic theory has been presented by Harold Osborne who says that in measuring aesthetic values, organic and systemic unity is needed [28]. This theory was later strengthened by Liang Gie as a form theory because artifacts must have form and meaning [29]. Actually, structuralist thinking does not really care about the non-formal aspects that tend to be reception theory but focuses more on the formal aspects which require hermeneutics to realize explanations. This method is the ability to provide a verstehen interpretation of each artifact from each era [30]. When considering the goal to be achieved, namely that these artifacts must be able to facilitate communication, then semiotics is needed which is the science of signs as elements of logical structures. In this regard, the opinion of Charles Sander Pierce can be used to analyze it [31]. According to him, signs are divided into three, namely icons, indexes, and symbols. An icon is a sign in the form of a similar relationship. An index is a sign that has a causal relationship, and a symbol is a sign that is based on an arbitrary relationship. This arbitrator relationship does not occur directly so a conventional deposition and acknowledgment period is needed.

The problem that arises in relation to signs as symbols is that there is nothing intrinsic in artifacts that designates something that must be interpreted that way. There is no obligation to accept an aesthetic meaning of an abstract painting, for example, by having to refer to the rules in saddangga or methods for assessing beauty in traditional art. Beauty in a structural sense is not a substantial meaning but rather a generally accepted acknowledgment.

This formal aspect must focus on artifacts so that there must be a certain distance to collective life. This requires understanding artifacts only through the artist's personal emotions so that the aesthetic criteria are still placed as something virtuous. The easy-to-know feature of this aspect is because artifacts must have elements of sensory sensitivity such as composition, plane, level of precision balance, and structure.

This phenomenon is the absorption of the West because, after the Renaissance, humans began to be aware of their individual values so that rationality could open the dawn of reason to cut through the darkness of the world. The industrial revolution that occurred in the eighteenth century as a peak had a negative impact on the cessation of creativity because everything had to be determined by standardization and rationalization.

As a reaction against life in Europe in 1890, the Art Nouveau movement emerged. This movement is more in favor of pre-industrial values and wants something new, although in terms of aesthetic values it is still related to industrial civilization, such as with streamlined forms, and in the world of architecture and design, or form follows

#### *Perspective Chapter: Artifact Remains in Indonesia as an Object of Field Study of Learning… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109219*

function [32]. To try to understand artifacts in a formal aspect, what happened in Indonesia is something interesting. This needs to be known because modern art seems to give a power of its own, contains various problems and demands a special sense of sensitivity. In the above analysis, it can be understood that modern art is a modern reality that is not always in line with the movement of life of some of its people, therefore it is always a subject of discussion and sharp focus.

Modern art is more moving from solitude so artists always uphold their freedom, must be creative and original innovative. It seeks new insights and techniques and new possibilities. This creative activity demands material embodiment, namely with the work itself. After he joins together or simultaneously with his artistic appreciation, the artifact becomes the artist's personal expression. The problem that arises next is whether the artifact will be valued or not accepted by the community. This requires the role of an intermediary, namely the presence of art critics as parties who deliver to the community. These actions are transformative from the formalist aspect.

Feldman in relation to criticism divides it into four stages, namely description, form analysis, interpretation, and evaluation. The description stage is an assessment of the artifact in general. The shape analysis stage is the assembly stage of the artifact content obtained from the description whose purpose is to find out about the composition of the materials and figures. The interpretation stage is an attempt to interpret the artifact so that it is able to give meaning to the description stage and form analysis. This interpretation stage leads to actual criticism because the expression of meaning contained in it can be explained. The evaluation stage is an additional stage after the previous three stages have been completed. It is possible that up to the interpretation stage alone, it can give meaning to the artifact so that the evaluation stage is not mandatory. However, if it is associated with certain considerations from the observer, the evaluation stage must still be carried out.

In its function as an educational medium, formal artifacts can only be reached in two-dimensional and three-dimensional products. Two-dimensional art is generally divided into two major groups, namely representative and non-representative [33]. Representative art is presenting the form of an object close to optical similarity, which is often found in realist and naturalist style paintings. Non-representative art presents a form that deviates from the representative one which is done by means of deformation or stylization. The flow in this art can be found in expressionism, impressionism, abstractism, cubism, surrealism, and pop art. Art that is grouped as three-dimensional art in this case is represented by sculpture. Sculpture in Indonesia has nothing to do with previous traditions, but this phenomenon originated from the experiments of a number of painters who wanted to find other forms of media of expression [34]. An example is a painter Affandi who made his first sculptural work using clay in 1940. His work was not scheduled to be exhibited but only served as a companion to his paintings. This tendency to experiment with sculpture is due to the fact that there are expressive similarities in making paintings and sculptures. Affandi's experimental success as a sculptor was followed by other painters and culminated with the establishment of formal sculpture education in 1950 at ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology) Bandung and ASRI (Indonesian Fine Arts Academy) Yogyakarta. Not unlike two-dimensional art, the sculpture is also divided between realist and abstract. Then as another tridimensional is the monument. Artifacts also have nothing to do with temple architecture, but their development goes hand in hand with modern sculpture. Also, the purpose of making a monument that is easy to understand is to commemorate various important events.

#### **4. Conclusion**

The development of artifacts as visual media is actually an evolutionary development of human creativity. So in this case, creativity is a historical command of a civilization. The development in this case is not distinguished between primitive patterned artifacts and modern patterned artifacts but viewed from the aspect of formalism. This aspect demands more internal coherence which limits itself to the form of the artifact. So in this case, primitive and modern are no longer distinguished into low culture and high culture, but because of their exclusive attitude, they are seen as curious and civilized.

Artifacts as educational media are one of the best alternatives and can be done by means of field studies. It's just that because the existence of these artifacts is scattered from each other at great distances, they can be reduced by playing video films or other digital technology methods.

The description above shows that the development of artifacts according to the dimensions of time, which is actually widely known by the general public. However, if an observation is made of each momentum that has gone through the selection, it will be able to open an aesthetic dialogue from each according to its type and style. It is said that these aesthetic dialogues are acquired cumulatively based on their nature, namely horizontally through acculturation and vertically through historical inheritance, thus eclecticism will be found.

If the artifact is associated with a work of art, it will not be able to become an objective description of facts as in science because there is a hidden factor, namely the artist. Thus, to find out the work in accordance with its meaning will be done through a structural approach. The structural approach in the West is useful for transforming open awareness of insight. This is to form a futuristic because empirical normative is considered not sufficient. The art also always faces various problematic realities that must be solved by conceptualizing it through interdisciplinary means.

The aspect that must be distinguished is that artifacts are divided into informal and formal. The non-formal aspect in terms of transformation is easy to do, but the formal aspect is more difficult to do because it is individual so it is necessary to search for formal and universal boundaries. The ideal goal in the non-formal aspect is how to apply the aesthetic normative, whereas in the formal aspect it is how to realize the theoretical aspect. This can be overcome by making an analogy that is interdisciplinary, semiotic, hermenitic, and diachronic-synchronic.

#### **Author details**

Iswahyudi Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia

\*Address all correspondence to: iswahyudi@uny.ac.id

© 2022 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Perspective Chapter: Artifact Remains in Indonesia as an Object of Field Study of Learning… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109219*

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Section 4
