Research report: Buddhist ethical governance in higher education reform in Indonesia a qualitative case study of STABN Raden Wijaya

The researchers designed an intrinsic qualitative case study, meaning the case was chosen for its unique informational richness rather than as a representative sample. Between February and September 2025, they conducted semi-structured interviews lasting 45 to 60 minutes with 28 purposively sampled participants, including four institutional leaders, seven lecturers, eight students or student leaders, four alumni, and five Buddhist community or religious figures. These were supplemented by focus group discussions of 60 to 90 minutes, systematic analysis of institutional documents ranging from accreditation reports to MBKM curriculum materials, and participatory observation at academic meetings, ceremonial events, and community engagement programs.

All data were coded inductively in NVivo, organized across four historical phases, and only then interpreted through Buddhist ethical categories, a sequencing choice the authors describe as essential to preventing the framework from imposing itself prematurely on the evidence. That framework is the Dasa Raja Dhamma, the Ten Royal Virtues traditionally associated with Buddhist leadership: generosity (dāna), morality (sīla), self-sacrifice (pariccāga), honesty (ājjava), gentleness (maddava), self-control (tapa), non-anger (akkodha), non-violence (avihiṃsā), patience (khanti), and non-obstruction (avirodhana). Rather than treating these virtues as abstract doctrine, the researchers used them as sensitizing lenses to interpret concrete institutional practices.

The analysis traced dāna to the land donations and fundraising campaigns that founded the campus, sīla to codes of conduct and graduate character profiles, ājjava to transparent communication practices, khanti to patient negotiation with accreditation bureaucracy, and avirodhana to efforts at inclusive decision-making. The result is one of the first empirical demonstrations that a classical Buddhist leadership text can function as a practical moral vocabulary for university governance. The story begins in 2007, when local Buddhist communities in Wonogiri mobilized grassroots support for a state Buddhist college.

Community members contributed land and organized fundraising, an act the study interprets as an ethical expression of collective responsibility rather than mere logistics. One community figure recalled the founding motivation as concern that Buddhist higher education should not remain fragmented and sectarian, and that a state college could serve the wider community. Observation notes recorded that this founding contribution continues to circulate in institutional ceremonies and commemorative narratives, functioning as shared moral memory rather than archival record.

The second phase, from 2011 to 2015, brought formal legal recognition and a demanding bureaucratic adaptation. STABN adopted the Indonesian National Qualifications Framework, established academic councils, and implemented stakeholder-inclusive governance mechanisms. Document analysis showed that Buddhist educational aims had to be reformulated into measurable learning outcomes, graduate competencies, and administrative reporting formats.

A vice-rector involved in institutional planning emphasized that the transformation was collaborative rather than the work of one central figure, involving work teams at the campus, the Buddhist Affairs Directorate, and the Ministry, with documents prepared, proposals submitted, and required stages followed. The study describes this as a productive but challenging negotiation between religious identity and state-recognized academic formats, mirroring challenges faced by faith-based institutions globally. Between 2016 and 2020, attention shifted to ethical leadership and institutional capacity building.

Leadership training and faculty development programs incorporated core Buddhist principles, especially compassion (karuṇā) and mindfulness (sati), while participatory governance structures inspired by Sangha values were formally integrated. Yet the triangulated data reveal a crucial tension. Institutional documents described consultation and collegial coordination as desirable governance features, but some participants experienced participation unevenly.

One lecturer noted that leaders usually invite discussion before important decisions, although not all units receive the same level of information at the same time. Observations confirmed both open consultation and respectful communication in some meetings and more centralized decision-making under deadline pressure in others. The authors interpret this as evidence that Buddhist values functioned as guiding ethical ideals whose practical realization depended on institutional capacity, leadership consistency, and procedural transparency.

The most recent phase, from 2021 to 2024, tested the institution against Indonesia's flagship higher education reform, the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) policy, which promotes curricular autonomy, experiential learning, and student mobility. STABN restructured its curriculum around service-learning, internships, and cross-sectoral engagement, which participants linked directly to Buddhist pedagogical values. Lecturers described a shift from doctrinal transmission toward Dharma in action, with students reflecting on Dharma through real projects relevant to social problems, including community-based teaching practice, Buddhist Sunday school support, and community service assignments.

One student explained that community-based tasks helped students understand Dharma through what they do with people, not only through what they read in class. Digital tools such as Moodle, Google Classroom, and video conferencing platforms were integrated to support hybrid learning, expanding access to materials and flexible communication. However, the digital and MBKM findings also expose practical constraints that complicate any promotional reading of reform.

Lecturers reported that reflective learning needs time, but curriculum reporting, accreditation documents, and MBKM administration often reduce the time available for deep mentoring. Observations showed that digital platforms were useful mainly for distributing materials and coordinating tasks, while value-based learning still depended on lecturer facilitation, discussion, mentoring, and community-oriented assignments. One lecturer put it plainly: digital platforms help distribute materials and coordinate tasks, but reflection still needs dialogue, and students need to be accompanied rather than simply given files or links.

The study concludes that MBKM functioned both as an educational opportunity for Buddhist value-based experiential learning and as a stress test for institutional capacity. Perhaps the study's most striking contradiction concerns the gap between formal value statements and lived practice. Documents presented ethical internalization as a formal institutional commitment through curriculum descriptions, graduate profiles, codes of conduct, and community service records.

In contrast, interviews and observations showed that the enactment of compassion, integrity, and social responsibility depended heavily on individual lecturers, leadership consistency, and repeated interaction. Students described lecturers who guide with compassion, correcting mistakes patiently without embarrassing students in front of friends. A lecturer explained that values can be written in curriculum documents, but students understand them when they see how lecturers speak, guide, and respond to problems.

The authors argue that ethical governance should therefore be understood as a negotiated institutional process rather than an automatic result of religious identity. Comparatively, the authors situate STABN alongside Indonesian Islamic institutions such as pesantren and madrasahs, which face parallel pressures of state regulation, public visibility, and multicultural accommodation while drawing on distinct theological resources. Globally, parallels include the Rahmatan lil Alamin paradigm in Islamic education and integrative religious education models that unite spiritual learning with scientific inquiry.

The authors caution that their findings are analytically transferable rather than statistically generalizable, bounded to institutions sharing similar conditions of minority religious identity, state oversight, community accountability, and reform pressure. Future research, they suggest, should compare Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, and Hindu faith-based institutions and conduct longitudinal studies to determine whether the tensions identified here, especially between formal value articulation and lived pedagogical practice, are specific to STABN or common across minority faith-based higher education worldwide.

Subject of Research: Education Research

Article Title: Buddhist ethical governance in higher education reform in Indonesia a qualitative case study of STABN Raden Wijaya

Article References: Hariyanto, Hatmono, P. D., Siswoyo, E., & Sujiono (2026). Buddhist ethical governance in higher education reform in Indonesia a qualitative case study of STABN Raden Wijaya. Discover Education, 5(1), Article 957. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-026-02188-0

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44217-026-02188-0

Keywords: Buddhist higher education, ethical governance, Dasa Raja Dhamma, Indonesia, STABN Raden Wijaya, higher education reform, MBKM, faith-based education, qualitative case study, curriculum modernization, digital pedagogy, minority institutions