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o strengthen bilateral cooperation in education, Indonesia and Malaysia have urged universities in both countries to be more active in establishing partnerships without relying much on government-to-government collaborations, an official has said.  

Education attache at the Malaysian Embassy, Juzhar Jusoh, said direct cooperation between universities would be more effective because it usually took longer for the realization of government agreements, which needed several stages before they took effect.

However, the two governments would continue to provide a broader platform that could bridge and facilitate universities in the two countries in their efforts to intensify direct collaborations, he said.

'€œEducation is very important. Therefore, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak frequently conduct meetings to discuss this issue,'€ he told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Juzhar said the number of Indonesian students in Malaysia was around 17,000.

Out of 17,000 students, 12,000 are university students, ranging from bachelor to doctorate degrees, in various universities across Malaysia. Such a number made Indonesia one of the biggest contributors of foreign students to Malaysia.

'€œIndonesia is ranked third after Bangladesh and China [in terms of the biggest contributors of foreign countries in Malaysia]. The number of Indonesian students in Malaysia has tended to increase,'€ he said, adding that most Indonesian students took business and international relations as their major.

According to Juzhar, the Malaysian government had provided a large number of scholarships to Indonesian students, which was considered the largest among Southeast Asian countries.

'€œAs far as I know, Indonesian students who study in Malaysia are smart students,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, the number of Malaysian students in Indonesia has reached over 5,000.

Unlike their peers, who mostly study business and international relations in Malaysia, Malaysian students prefer to study medical science in universities across Indonesia, citing the quality of medical schools.

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) School of International Studies dean Ahmad Bashawir agreed that university-to-university partnerships between the two neighboring countries had to be strengthened.

He said that UUM had signed 23 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with several public and private universities in Indonesia.

Such agreements involved student-and-lecturer exchanges, joint research, exchanges of library materials and publications and initiations to hold international seminars.

He said the number of Indonesian students studying at UUM had reached around 700, while Indonesian visiting lecturers totaled 20.

Bashawir said his university had kept on urging Indonesian students to study in Malaysia.

He said that in a bid to attract Indonesian students, Malaysian universities not only provided a warm atmosphere to study, but also charged the lowest tuition fees compared to other countries.

They also provided a large number of scholarships to Indonesian students through MoUs that had been agreed.

'€œWe will keep increasing the number of MoUs with universities in Indonesia,'€ he said. (alz)