(Photo courtesy of Seto Wardhana/JP)

In order to honour the Indonesian alumni of British education, the British Council (BC) Indonesia recently held the UK Alumni Awards 2016, the first time the awards have been presented in the country.

The United Kingdom is one of the main destinations for Indonesians pursuing a higher education abroad. Education and Culture Ministry data show that at least 3,000 Indonesian students travel to the UK every year to study there.

The award ceremony itself was conducted in the Kempinski Ballroom in Central Jakarta on March 3 and started at 7 p.m.

The awards were divided into three categories: professional achievement, entrepreneurial and social impact awards.

The professional achievement award recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves through exemplary leadership and achievements in their careers. There were three finalists in this category, namely Presidential Office deputy chief of staff for analysis and oversight of priority programs Yanuar Nugroho, University of Indonesia information technology (IT) director Betty Purwandari and University of Surabaya rector Joniarto Parung.

The entrepreneurial award recognizes alumni who are active in opening new job opportunities in Indonesia, with fashion businesswoman Theresia Alit Widyasari and human resources consultancy Daily Meaning founder Alexander Sriewijono as finalists.

The social impact award is for those who have instigated positive social change and improved the lives of people in Indonesia. Finalists were urban planner Ahmad Rifai, writer and education activist Ahmad Fuadi and environmentalist Yuyun Ismawati.

The panel of judges consisted of BC Indonesia country director Sally Goggin, British Embassy Jakarta political counsellor Louise Clarke, CNN Indonesia senior anchor and director Desi Anwar, Ciputra Group senior director and Ciputra University Entrepreneurship Center president Antonius Tanan and Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa foundation founder and chief executive officer Veronica Colondam.

'€œIt is wonderful to see the achievements of the alumni, and I thank everybody who made today happen. Hopefully, this will become an annual event where we reflect the unifying function of education. In education, there is connectivity, where transfer of knowledge from one person to the next is made possible,'€ Goggin said in her opening remarks at the event.

She added that international education could create alternative pathways leading to understanding among different nations, as a lack of understanding among different peoples and different cultures was damaging societies across the world.

British Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor Leste and ASEAN Moazzam Malik echoed Goggin'€™s remarks on the role of education in enabling the transfer of knowledge among people from different parts of the globe.

'€œInternational education is important because every country is going to be good at something, and we need to learn different things from different countries. Britain is particularly strong with the tradition of academic learning, not only in terms of pure knowledge but also applied knowledge,'€ Malik said in his speech during the event.

According to Malik, as a G20 nation with great potential for growth alongside China and India, Indonesia needs quality education to groom its future leaders by investing in talented people.

Goggin said that hopefully after studying abroad, international alumni would be able to bring about positive changes at home.

Particular areas in which positive changes can be achieved include entrepreneurship, which helps open jobs and lays the foundation of the economy, and social entrepreneurship, where people are able to serve the underprivileged in a sustainable way through cooperation forged with the government and the business sector.

The Award Recipients

The award recipients of the three categories were Betty Purwandari for professional achievement, Theresia Alit Widyasari for entrepreneurship and Ahmad Fuadi for social impact.

The award signifies the powerful position of teachers to inspire their students to pursue knowledge across the globe, Ahmad said.

This is related to his own personal experience, as it was a teacher at his Islamic boarding school in Gontor, East Java, who inspired him to study in Britain by telling the students about his own experience of living in England.

Meanwhile, Betty said the award was the result of not just her own hard work but also the collaboration she forged with colleagues at the University of Indonesia (UI) and her peers in the field of IT in different countries.

'€œI learnt how to network and engage in effective teamwork while studying in England. Now, while implementing UI'€™s new IT master plan after it hadn'€™t been upgraded for 15 years, I have put these skills into play,'€ she said.

'€œI also capitalize on the contacts I'€™ve made with IT professionals throughout Asia, particularly at the National University of Singapore (NUS), to get a benchmark against which my project here in Indonesia is being measured. The final goal of this project is to boost UI'€™s standing among international universities in terms of IT,'€ she added.

Finally, Theresia Alit Widyasari, who was unable to attend the ceremony because she was ill, delivered a message through a close friend.

'€œAs an entrepreneur, it'€™s okay to be hit by competitors '€“ as long as you stay innovative and creative, you will survive with your brand,'€ she said. (+)

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