<![CDATA[Background: The legal relationship between lecturers and private higher education institutions (PTS) in Indonesia remains normatively problematic because it is regulated under a labor-law framework, despite lecturers’ status as professional educators who carry out the Tridharma of Higher Education. Objective: This article aims to critically analyze the applicability of labor law in regulating lecturer-PTS legal relationships and to formulate an alternative legal framework that reflects lecturers’ professional characteristics. Methods: This study uses normative legal research with statutory, conceptual, and normative-critical approaches. Legal materials consisting of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources were analyzed through qualitative-prescriptive methods to examine the consistency between labor law and higher education regulations. Results: The findings reveal that the application of labor law creates fundamental contradictions in lecturer-PTS relationships. The elements of work, wages, and authority (gezagsverhouding) under Law No. 13 of 2003 are inconsistent with lecturers’ professional autonomy and academic freedom guaranteed by Law No. 14 of 2005 and Law No. 12 of 2012. This contradiction affects the protection of academic rights, dispute-resolution certainty, and professional independence. Therefore, this article proposes an alternative framework based on equality, professional autonomy, special protection, and a specific dispute-resolution mechanism. Conclusion: The lecturer-PTS legal relationship should be constructed as a specific academic-professional relationship (sui generis) that emphasizes parity between lecturers and institutions, rather than a subordinate industrial employment relationship. This framework provides a more appropriate legal basis for protecting academic professionalism and institutional governance.]]>
