At a major gathering hosted by STIPRAM, higher education leaders called on universities to embrace quality as culture, not just compliance.

Yogyakarta — In a push to accelerate external quality improvement across Indonesia’s universities, the Agency for Higher Education Service, Region V, in collaboration with the National Accreditation Board for Higher Education (BAN-PT), convened a national forum on the Institutional Accreditation Instrument (IAPT) 4.0 and the SAPTO 2.0 digital accreditation system. The event, held at the Ambarrukmo Tourism College (STIPRAM) Yogyakarta on April 28, 2025, attracted more than 120 on-site participants and thousands online.

The session opened with a welcome from Dr. Suhendroyono, Chair of STIPRAM, followed by Prof. Setyabudi Indartono, M.M., Ph.D., Head of the Agency for Higher Education Service, Region V. Prof. Setyabudi underscored the need for universities to move beyond administrative box-ticking.

“Quality is not built overnight. It is born from consistency, commitment, and innovation across the academic community. With these new instruments, we are all challenged to keep transforming,” he said.

Prof. Dr. Ir. Ari Purbayanto, M.Sc., Executive Board Director of BAN-PT, echoed this view, stressing that accreditation should align higher education outputs with both national and global development needs.

“Accreditation is not for accreditation’s sake. It is a tool to ensure universities genuinely produce the superior human capital this nation requires,” he asserted.

In the first technical session, Prof. Tjokorde Walmiki Samadhi, S.T., M.T., Ph.D. and Prof. H. Johni Najwan, SH, MH, Ph.D., members of BAN-PT’s executive board, outlined policy updates. They highlighted IAPT 4.0’s outcome-based approach, where institutions must demonstrate the real-world impact of graduates, community relevance of study programs, and measurable contributions from research and outreach. The challenge, they argued, lies in shifting the focus from paperwork to performance evidence.

The second session featured Prof. Agus Setyo Muntohar and Fiftin Noviyanto, S.T., M.Cs., who introduced SAPTO 2.0.

“SAPTO 2.0 is a response to the need for a more responsive, data-driven reaccreditation system. With this platform, the process is more objective and fully transparent,” Prof. Agus explained.

Fiftin detailed the system’s upgrades: automatic integration with the Higher Education Database (PDDikti), more accurate document validation, enhanced security, and user-friendly design. He noted that once institutions update their PDDikti records, the data can feed directly into reaccreditation through SAPTO 2.0.

In the final training session, Prof. Dr. Slamet Wahyudi, S.T., M.T. led participants through evidence-based preparation of IAPT 4.0 documents.

“Accreditation now demands precision, measurability, and strong evidence. Without robust data, achieving ‘Excellent’ status is nearly impossible,” he emphasized.

The event closed with an interactive Q&A, where participants pressed for strategies to accelerate reaccreditation, maximize SAPTO 2.0, and adapt to the new IAPT 4.0 indicators.

The Agency for Higher Education Service, Region V, expressed hope that through such initiatives, universities in the Special Region of Yogyakarta and beyond will adapt quickly to the evolving accreditation framework and embed quality as a core culture of higher education.

Public Relations - Agency for Higher Education Service, Region V