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ndonesia should increase its higher education learning competitiveness index by improving synergy with other ASEAN countries.

“We have to be innovative and open to change if we want to move forward. Indonesia should increase its competitiveness by working with other ASEAN countries considering that we are a regional body,” said Suyatno, chairman of Indonesian Rectors’ Forum.

He mentioned that one of the ways to increase competitiveness is by encouraging higher education researchers to publish more for international journals.

“Our research industry has yet to be widely recognized by the world. Most of the research is done, published and kept by the researchers.

“We have more than 5,000 researchers but no more than 250 international journals. We should push them to publish more journals to increase competitiveness,” he said at the ASEAN competitiveness dialogue at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the Coordinator of Private Higher Education Learning Institutions (Kopertis) in Jakarta, Illah Sailah, said Indonesia should improve the quality of its higher education institutions.

“We have 4,572 higher education institutions, but only 49 are accredited as Grade A institutions,” she said.

“Most of them are Grade B and 1,125 institutions are not accredited. We have to improve the quality of our higher education institutions for the future generations.”

The rector of Lambung Mangkurat University in South Kalimantan, Sutarto Hadi, stated that Indonesia’s competitive rating is below average in the ASEAN region, and he believes it is time for Indonesia to look at neighboring countries for motivation to strive for a better higher education learning system.

The dialogue was held as part of the Jakarta ASEAN Campus Expo, which runs until Thursday.

Students from across Indonesia flocked to Jakarta for the 10th anniversary of the expo, which, for the first time, hosted universities from around Asia.

Among the exhibitors were universities from Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Sudan.

“There are a lot of Islamic universities in African and Arab countries, which we are not yet connected to,” said Errizal Kidd, who consults the conference secretariat.

He indicated that he would be inviting more universities from North Africa and the Middle East to the 2018 Expo.

While Indonesian students are already able to arrange international exchanges through ASEAN, many are looking to complete their entire degree overseas.

Indonesian students present a huge portion of the demand for international education in the flight industry, said Brent Mireles from Pan Am International Flight Academy.

He said the opportunity to live in the United States was one of the biggest draws for students who enroll at Pan Am.

“The usual questions are about the requirements, age and physical,” Mireles added, indicating that students preferred to find out this sort of information in person rather than over the internet.

He said that it meant a lot to Pan Am’s local partners that they were attending the conference because they help students to visualize the company and its pilots.

Exhibitors were pleased with the number of students who came to the conference.

Nopi Hendriani, an instructor at the Jakarta Hospital Foundation Midwife Academy, said her students came from as far as Papua, Kalimantan and Bali.

Many of the students who visit her stand at the conference eventually decide to attend the academy, she said.
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The writers are interns at The Jakarta Post.