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Jakarta Post

Student mobility plays a key role in linking Indonesia and the Netherlands

From Feb. 12 to 16, the Dutch Education, Culture and Science Minister Dr. Jet Bussemaker visited Indonesia to further strengthen ties in the fields of education and research between the two countries.

Inforial (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta, Indonesia
Fri, February 24, 2017

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Student mobility plays a key role in linking Indonesia and the Netherlands Director –General of EP Nuffic Freddy Weima (left) and President of Saxion University of Applied Sciences Wim Boomkamp at the Nuffic Neso Indonesia Office in Jakarta. (-/-)

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strong>From Feb. 12 to 16, the Dutch Education, Culture and Science Minister Dr. Jet Bussemaker visited Indonesia to further strengthen ties in the fields of education and research between the two countries. Central themes during the intensive bilateral discussions were student mobility and the connection between education and the labor market.

The Jakarta Post spoke to two prominent members of the delegation: Wim Boomkamp (President of Saxion University of Applied Sciences and Board Member of the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences) and Freddy Weima (Director General of EP-Nuffic) to discuss the outcomes of the visit and the way forward.

Results

Important results from the visit were the outcome of a Joint Working Group on Higher Education and Science and the signing of the roadmap "Horizon 2022". Agreements were signed in the area of vocational education and training. The overall goal of these partnerships is to improve student mobility and strengthen the education and research ties between Indonesia and the Netherlands by sharing knowledge and expertise.

Another highlight was the opening of the Erasmus Training Centre in Jakarta. It aims to support student mobility and serve as a platform for training of Indonesian professionals. “I hope the new Erasmus Training Centre can serve as an enabler for more people-to-people contact between Indonesia and the Netherlands and for the further internationalization of both Indonesian and Dutch education,” minister Bussemaker said.

Attractive destination

The Netherlands is an attractive destination for Indonesians with about 1,500 Indonesians studying there annually, partly due to the scholarships offered by both governments. At Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Indonesians make up the third largest population of foreign students, right after German and Chinese students.

Saxion’s President Boomkamp explained, "our country offers quality education and what makes it even more attractive are the strong international links and the connections to professional practice in the curriculum and in our research. Furthermore, contrary to popular misconceptions, our Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees are provided in English."        

"Upon graduation, most of the students go back to Indonesia, but some of them, and this number is increasing, stay for one to four years to get work experience. With the combination of international study and work experience, they add value to the Indonesian labor market,” Weima said.

Study in Indonesia

Facilitating student mobility from the Netherlands to Indonesia was another point of discussion. According to the EP-Nuffic, the Netherlands organization for internationalization in education, 24 percent of all students in the Netherlands are getting international experience by studying abroad. A few hundred of these students go to Indonesia each year for studies or an internship.

To encourage more Dutch students to come to Indonesia and to support Indonesian universities to further internationalize, EP-Nuffic’s Netherlands Education Support Office in Jakarta (Nuffic Neso Indonesia) is currently in the process of setting up a study in Indonesia desk that will be launched in April.

"By providing better information, we hope to generate more interest among Dutch students to study in Indonesia." said Weima. He also shared that international experience is a must for Dutch students nowadays, "graduates are considered more interesting candidates by employers if they have been abroad during their studies. The international experience will help in seeing things from a different perspective and creates a flexible attitude that is highly valued in the labor market.”

Boomkamp added, “for our partnerships with Indonesian universities, it is important that our students go to Indonesia as well. There is so much we can learn from each other and reciprocal student mobility makes that possible.”

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