Indonesia, France to Explore Cooperation in Academic Sector

Jakarta – Indonesia and France governments continue to strengthen cooperation in higher education, research, and technology.

Tjitjik Sri Tjahjandarie, Secretary of the Directorate General of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, revealed various developments in priority programs and collaborations with France. She disclosed this during the 13th Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting.

Currently, the Education Ministry manages 4,484 higher education institutions, including universities, polytechnics, academies, and community academies.

Within the ecosystem of these higher education institutions, there are more than 8 million students and over 286,000 lecturers or teaching staff.

"To accelerate the improvement of higher education quality in Indonesia, including all academic and vocational programs, the Education Ministry is implementing policy initiatives or transformations through the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program," Tjahjandarie said in an official statement on Friday (July 5).

Based on the Merdeka Belajar policy, there are four major programs to improve the quality of higher education in Indonesia, namely Certified Internships and Independent Studies (MSIB), Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA), Campus Teaching, and the Merdeka Student Exchange.

The number of participants for each program continues to increase every year. For instance, the number of French universities participating in the IISMA program has grown from just one university to 12 universities.

"Based on this experience, we see that this joint working group is very important for us to follow up and promote academic mobility and research between the two countries," she continued.

As information, several universities in Indonesia have collaborations or partnerships with higher education institutions in France, such as UGM, BINUS, ITB, UI, ITS, and the Indonesian Catholic University Atma Jaya, and others.

This collaboration includes various activities such as mobility programs, including staff mobility, student mobility, academics, research, and joint programs like joint degrees, double degrees, short-term training, and conferences.

Tjahjandarie stated that since 2022, the her team has always opened opportunities for foreign universities to establish branches in Indonesia. Several universities have already established campuses in Indonesia.

"Therefore, we also offer opportunities to French universities to establish higher education institutions in Indonesia, whether for specific programs or for setting up entire campuses in Indonesia," she concluded.