Profile of Anton Nugroho, Rector of Indonesia’s Defense University in the Spotlight Amid the Hijab Ban Controversy
Lieutenant General TNI (Ret.) Dr. Anton Nugroho, M.M.D.S., M.A. was born in Klaten, Central Java, on September 27, 1966. This high-ranking Army officer, a graduate of the 1986 Military Academy, officially took up the post of Rector at the Indonesian Defense University (Unhan) on May 22, 2025.
His military career kicked off in Kopassus, with tours of duty in East Timor, Aceh, and the border area of Atambua. He’s gone through some pretty prestigious schools-Command and Staff College in Australia, the TNI Staff and Command School, the US Army War College, and Lemhannas RI. On the academic side, he bagged a doctorate in Human Resource Management from Jakarta State University, plus a couple of master’s degrees from Norwich University and the University of Canberra.
Before landing the rector gig, he held some key positions like Commander of the Army Command and Staff College, head of the Army Infantry Center, and then a senior expert analyst role at Lemhannas. For his years of service, he got a bunch of honors, including the Bintang Yudha Dharma Nararya and Bintang Kartika Eka Paksi Nararya.
He got everyone's attention after some female cadet candidates withdrew, saying they didn’t want to go along with an internal campus rule that required them to take off their hijabs during their training. The Ministry of Defense later clarified it was more of a technical thing, really about safety during Basic Military Training.
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