Indonesia’s education call

Indonesia’s education minister has urged more Australian and international tertiary institutions to follow Monash University’s example and set up campuses in the country.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Picture: AFP

Indonesia’s education minister has urged more Australian and international tertiary institutions to follow Monash University’s example and set up campuses in the country to help it achieve its goal of becoming an advanced economy.

Nadiem Makarim said Indonesia welcomed all global institutions to establish a presence there to help build Indonesia’s intellectual capacity and strengthen bilateral research and economic bonds.

“President Jokowi’s vision is very clear; that we want as much collaboration as we can between our educational institutions and global institutions,” Mr Makarim said at the formal opening of the Jakarta campus.

“I’ve been talking to various top universities in the world as a travelling salesman, but Monash is one that didn’t need to be sold. It already understands the potential to create institutions in Indonesia, not only because of Indonesia’s economic potential, but also the research potential and the potential for partnerships.”

Monash University Indonesia, a postgraduate campus which offers Master and PhD degrees, as well as executive programs, accepted its first 85 students for online classes last October because of Covid, though has since moved to on-campus learning.

But Mr Makarim, who has an MBA from the US Ivy League Harvard Business School, urged vice chancellor Margaret Gardner to scale up quickly and bring in many more students to demonstrate to other global universities the advantages of operating in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

“Monash University will forever be the first, no one will ever take that away. I have a lot of experience being the first, and being the first is uncomfortable, but it is an achievement and a source of pride,” he said, referring to the Gojek ride-hailing app he founded and which was Indonesia’s first so-called decacorn start-up with a value of more than $US10 billion.

“I hope with Monash’s help (and) its experience, we can attract more and more universities from Australia, the United States, Europe, Japan, China, Singapore, Canada and other countries.”

Indonesia hasn’t always been so welcoming of foreign educational institutions.

Many have tried to establish a presence in the country, only to face dense bureaucratic obstacles, Indonesian partnership requirements and an indigenous education market hostile to foreign entrants.

The country’s university sector has long-argued that foreign institutions would sap the growth potential of state and privately-owned Indonesian universities, and that they should only be allowed to offer courses not commonly available in Indonesia.

But President Joko Widodo has pushed ahead with the liberalisation of the university sector as part of a second-term reform agenda to lift education standards and improve Indonesia’s human resource base. Indonesia aims to add 57 million skilled workers to the economy by 2030.

Professor Gardner said the university was the “realisation” of President Jokowi’s 2020 speech to the Australian parliament in which he urged more investment in Indonesia, and of the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed that same year, which allowed for 100 per cent Australian ownership of Indonesia-based campuses

“The decision to base this campus in Jakarta had much to do with the importance of being at the economic heart of this region,” she said, adding it had already established strategic collaborations with industry, government and local universities.

“In this region, Indonesia is a significant part of the future. So when choosing the location, it was important for us to consider our own goals (which) include being close to industry, in close proximity to innovative companies, (and) in proximity to other Indonesian universities.”

Some 70,000 Indonesian students have studied with Australian institutions over the past two decades, while more than 9000 Australian students have studied in Indonesia under the New Colombo Plan Australian since 2014.