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said maintaining good relations with alumni also worked to help improve its lecturers’ competence. “Our alumni can provide our lecturers with industry access and help them to better their knowledge so that they can increase their teaching competence,” he added.
Other than costs and educator competency, there is also a lack of appreciation for polytechnic graduates from employers, as evident in the smaller salaries obtained by vocational diploma graduates ( D4 ) compared with those who hold a bachelor’s degree ( S1 ), according to Patdono.
“Companies, including state-owned enterprises [SOEs], often think that D4 graduates are below S1 graduates, and this is simply wrong,” he said, adding that vocational diploma graduates had more experience in their field of work than their bachelor’s degree counterparts due to the long periods of mandatory internship.
Moreover, ministerial regulations from several ministries like the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry and State-Owned Enterprises Ministry still consider D4 graduates to be a step below bachelor’s degree holders.
This problem discouraged high school students from pursuing vocational education, hence the low number of polytechnic students in Indonesia, he said.
Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister M. Nasir had tried to send letters to the ministries in order to attract students to vocational schools, he added.