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lumni of the Australian Consortium for '€˜In-Country'€™ Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) have the capacity to help cool down political tensions in Indonesian '€” Australian bilateral relations whenever they are on the rise.

'€œThey can help cool down the political tension through simple ways, such as by writing letters to mass media,'€ said ACICIS'€™ consortium director David T. Hill during a press briefing on Friday.

The press meeting was conducted ahead of the commemoration of the organization'€™s 20th anniversary in Yogyakarta held from Friday to Sunday.

ACICIS is an Australian education consortium that helps Australian students and other foreign students wanting to study in Indonesian universities.

A series of activities were held in Yogyakarta for its 20th anniversary commemoration ahead of a celebration to be held in Canberra on Oct. 13.

Hill, who is also an expert on Indonesian mass media and co-founder of ACICIS, said that currently ACICIS has around 2,000 alumni, many of them holding key positions in various important Australian institutions, including the embassy in Indonesia. Others have become academics in different universities and business institutions.

With their knowledge about Indonesian culture, Hill said, the alumni individually could offer important input to help improve mutual understanding between Indonesians and Australians.

'€œMany Indonesian officials who are alumni of Australian universities are also capable of helping improve Indonesian-Australian relations,'€ said Hill, mentioning former vice president Budiono and former ministers Marty Natalegawa and Mary Elka Pangestu as examples.

ACICIS currently has 22 member universities in Australia and two international members in the Netherlands and the UK.

The consortium is getting stronger this year thanks to the support from the New Colombo Plan, an initiative from the Australian government aimed at improving the country'€™s knowledge of the Indo-Pacific region by providing scholarships to its students to study there.

ACICIS'€™ resident director Elena Williams said her office had been developing new programs in the fields of agriculture, health and arts for Australian students wanting to study in Indonesia.

'€œWe are looking for new ways to provide new positive experiences to students studying in Indonesia, to improve the benefits of our programs and to contribute to Indonesian-Australian relations,'€ Williams said.

She said the Australian government had committed to provide A$2 million to ACICIS to pay for Australian students to study in Indonesia.

'€œWith the funds we can pay for the study of 500 students within the next two to three years,'€ she said.

During a seminar held at Gadjah Mada University'€™s School of Cultural Sciences, Parahyangan Catholic University'€™s international office head Ida Susanti said that ACICIS had contributed positively to the academic life in her university in Bandung, West Java.

She said the presence of Australian students at her campus had provided important experience to Parahyangan university'€™s students in term of associating with international community.

At her campus, she said, Australian students could study at the international relations department and West Java field study.

'€œBy learning about West Javanese culture we expect Australian students are able to understand West Java and Indonesia in general,'€ Ida said.

She said there were challenges in the field that they had to face. Among other challenges was the complicated procedure to obtain study permits. '€œWe do hope the Indonesian government can make it simpler soon,'€ Ida said.