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Asian-African university development network: NAASP agenda
Yogyakarta hosts 11 reputable universities nationally, five of which have international reputability rankings from QS Asia University Ranking.
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Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta is a prominent higher education institution in Indonesia. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
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n April 22 and 23, 2005, Asian and African countries renewed their longstanding solidarity at the 2005 Asian-African Summit in Jakarta. The 2005 Asian-African Summit yielded, among other things, the Declaration on the New Asian African Strategic Partnership (NAASP).
The declaration was a manifestation of interregional bridge-building forming a new strategic partnership commitment between Asia and Africa, standing on three pillars, i.e. political solidarity, economic cooperation and sociocultural relations, within which governments, regional and subregional organizations and the peoples of Asian and African nations would interact.
Indonesia and South Africa have cochaired the NAASP since 2005. One of the partnership’s areas of focus for cooperation is promoting the Asian-African Development University Network.
To that end, Indonesia and South Africa initiated the Best Student Cities Rankings 2021 in both countries, initiated by researchers from the State University of Jakarta (UNJ) and the Ithuba Knowledge Center of South Africa.
The study sought to determine the best student cities in the two countries to promote student and lecturer mobility; joint degree programs through face-to-face, blended learning or digital approaches between and among reputable universities of South Africa and Indonesia; cooperation in research, teaching and community service that will benefit the two countries; the sharing of best practices, lessons learned and resources between and among reputable universities of the two countries; and the exposure of South Africa and Indonesia’s best student cities to Asia, Africa and international communities to promote university in university development network.
Indonesia and South Africa have much in common. First, both countries have adopted national and international standards in managing their universities. Indonesia, with its 4,713 universities and higher education institutions, has a national standard agency (BAN-PT) to run accreditation for those institutions periodically. For example, BAN-PT records show that in 2020, out of 4,713 institutions registered, only 98 received an “A” score and merely 30 were entitled to QS Asia University Rankings accreditation or reputable status. UNJ was one of them.
Out of 514 cities and regencies across Indonesia, only 10 host those reputable universities.
