It’s certainly abuse of power, as mentioned. This could be addressed on an institute level, but probably won’t. If their Government cares about higher education, as they claim to, they’ll take action. But, again, that probably won’t happen. I suspect there’s also some cultural aspect to this, but that doesn’t mean it should continue, governments often pass laws to mitigate cultural insufficiencies.

Students at larger and more prestigious institutions sometimes have more direct supervision, but “mostly, what we have is power asymmetry”, says Prahmana.

…

“I am sure there are many professors who treat students unfairly,” says an anonymous student in Semarang, Indonesia.

“But we are forced to accept what our supervisors say because we just want to graduate soon,” says another.