Novia D. Rulistia, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Sun, 05/23/2010 3:54 PM
A University of Sydney delegation visited Indonesia for the second time in late April to strengthen educational ties and research collaboration.
The delegation of more than 20 scholars and researchers visited, among others, the University of Indonesia, Airlangga University (Unair), Gadjah Mada University, the National Education Ministry and the Ministry of Research and Technology to follow up their previous memorandum of understanding and to ink some new others.
They also discussed the possibility of further improving cooperation with the universities in several fields, including in education, climate change, diseases and governance.
"We're particularly glad to be here to work with our Indonesian partners, and we come here on the principle of equal partnership and what we can learn from each other," John Hearn, University of Sydney's vice president, said during a press briefing.
Hearn said that the partnership was also aimed at finding ways on how it could provide the best education to prepare young people for the future and to think critically and make them leading researchers.
Also present at the briefing, the dean of medicine at the University of Sydney, Bruce Robinson, said that several practical measurements had been taken and would be developed further so that the memorandum would not only be paper-based agreements.
In his field, for instance, he said that the cooperation was conducted in the area of victim and perpetrator identification and major natural disasters or bombings.
"The expertise we gained when we came here two years ago was largely based in the Eijkman Institute, involved the used certain types of DNA to identify the victim of natural disasters or major crime," he said.
The Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology is a Jakarta-based non-profit, government funded research institute conducting basic research in medical molecular biology and biotechnology.
In addition, Robinson said the cooperation was also developing fast in the area of emerging diseases from which his university learned a lot from Unair.
Robinson said that the difference method used in handling the emerging diseases here was a perfect lesson learned as it created a better result.
"A broad range of people from different backgrounds are involved. People who are basic scientists of infectious diseases, public health, doctors who are interested in infectious diseases, clinical doctors, veterinarians, agriculture scientists, have all been brought together," he said.
The observation and consultation they conducted here resulted in the establishment of an emerging disease center at the University of Sydney similar to the one in Unair.
Other collaboration in the field of education include the University of Sydney organizing workshops to improve Indonesian teachers' qualifications together with other teachers from Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.
There will also be a new study program related to Indonesia such as Law and Society in Indonesia.
"We've seen a growth in interest in Indonesian studies at our university, more students want to study Indonesian and Indonesia related-subjects," Hearn said.
"All in all, the progress of collaboration is steady, if not fast," he added.
Approximately 200 Indonesian students in total are currently studying at the University of Sydney.
