Landmark Indonesian language course lost

THE University of NSW's Indonesian language program, once hailed as a national leader, is to close.

Belinda Hopkins

THE University of NSW's Indonesian language program, once hailed as a national leader, is to close.

UNSW yesterday confirmed the rumours, saying student numbers were too low to persist with the program of 22 years' standing.

Indonesian teachers across Australia were dismayed by the news, which comes as both sides of politics talk up the opportunities of the "Asian century" and the need for languages.

"How can we claim engagement with Asia at the same time as one of the flagship universities of Australia says, 'oh, well, we're cutting our program'," said Queensland academic Phil Mahnken, co-author of a report on the state of Indonesian studies.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop, who has been promoting the Coalition's "reverse Colombo Plan" to send thousands of young Australians on study tours of the Asia-Pacific, said the decision was "disappointing".

She said the timing was "unfortunate", coming as university teachers look to the soon-to-be-released Asian Century white paper for measures to promote language learning.

In 2006, Indonesian and Arabic were designated as "nationally strategic languages", requiring universities to seek approval before a shut-down.

A UNSW spokeswoman said no permission was needed because the university was merely "changing the way we deliver" Indonesian.

From next year, UNSW will not take any new students. It will make arrangements so students interested in Indonesian can go to the University of Sydney.

Student Belinda Hopkins, who has finished her Indonesian at UNSW, said the decision was "not entirely unexpected because they had already downgraded it to a minor".

She said her Indonesian teacher was "great" but alone and overworked so the program did not offer the choice and quality of others. Another student, Jamila Sudradjat, believed potential students were put off by the poor media image of Indonesia.

The UNSW spokeswoman said there were just 16 students this semester, a level "insufficient to justify maintaining the Indonesian program".

Arts dean James Donald said: "We believe that it is important that students should be able to continue to study Indonesian, and that is why we are making sure that they will be able to do so".