UNAIR NEWS – Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) Rector, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Madyan, SE, MSi, MFin, received the Lecturer Awards – The Most Inspirational Research Lecturer honor during the GALA FEB 2025 ceremony, held Wednesday (November 12, 2025) at the Fadjar Notonegoro Auditorium, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Dharmawangsa-B Campus.
In his remarks, Prof. Madyan admitted he was surprised, explaining that he thought he had been invited only to deliver a speech, not to receive recognition. “I am grateful. I hope this award will further motivate me to continue producing research and publications,” he said.
Journey of research culture transformation
Prof. Madyan used the moment to reflect on UNAIR’s efforts to strengthen its research culture. He noted that about a decade ago, the university produced only 147 Scopus-indexed publications.
“Roughly 10 to 12 years ago, UNAIR’s research output was limited to just 147 Scopus publications,” he recalled.
This low productivity caused UNAIR to fall off the Times Higher Education (THE) world ranking radar between 2015 and 2020. The situation compelled him and the previous rector, Prof. Nasih, to devise ways to improve publication performance.
“At the time, lecturer interest in publishing was very low because there were no publication incentives,” Prof. Madyan explained.
Impact of publication incentives
Once the publication incentive policy was implemented, change came swiftly. Within two years, the number of publications surged to 1,500. By 2021, UNAIR’s publication count had reached 3,200.
“In 2021, we finally appeared in the Times Higher Education ranking. And thankfully, research has now become a regular practice among lecturers, especially at the Faculty of Economics and Business,” he said.
The strengthened research culture also helped boost the number of professors. Prof. Madyan noted that in 2023, UNAIR inaugurated 74 new professors in a single year, its strongest performance in the past five years.
“I hope the enthusiasm of lecturers and students for research continues to grow each year. Once again, thank you very much for this award,” he concluded.
Author: Ahmad Abid Zhahiruddin
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
