Jakarta— Indonesia's Kompas Daily published an investigative series on Sunday, 27 July 2026, titled "Guru Besar Terlibat Konferensi Abal-abal" or "Professors Involved in Fake Conferences", reporting that several Indonesian professors are allegedly involved in running or promoting questionable academic conferences with fake locations and without reputable organizers.
The investigation also found that a paper written entirely by artificial intelligence was accepted and presented at an international conference.
The Kompas investigative team said the conference business has grown in Indonesia alongside pressure on academics to earn credit points needed for career promotion. Conference proceedings are often used for this purpose because they are easier to publish than papers in reputable academic journals.
Indonesia's Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology said signs of a fake or "predatory" conference include overly broad themes, name-dropping of experts without consent, weak peer review, and organizing committees with no academic reputation.
The report named a University of Jambi professor identified by the initials A.M. as chair of one such conference, and a Lampung University lecturer identified as F.R. as co-chair.
Tri Imam Munandar, head of the public relations team at University of Jambi said the professor was not yet ready to respond to questions. While, F.R. said his name had been used without his consent.
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"It could be said that my name was actually misused in that conference," he said.
To test the system, the Kompas team infiltrated an online international conference at the State Islamic University Fatmawati Sukarno in Bengkulu on 15 July 2026, submitting a deliberately weak paper generated by AI. The paper was accepted and given a ten-minute presentation slot.
During the event, a participant from Pakistan complained in the chat that the opening remarks were in Indonesian instead of English.
