Establishing International Cooperation of Higher Education in Creating Excellent Human Resources
Establishing International Cooperation of Higher Education in Creating Excellent Human Resources. Telkom University, since the last few years, has continued to establish various collaborations both in industry and academic field, nationally and internationally. We realize that having international partnership with partner universities means that we provide more opportunities for students to expose themselves on international horizons through international mobility programs. However, many of us are still looking for the right cooperation with universities out there. As a result, some universities have only arrived at MoU signing and have not implemented actual programs for both parties. Therefore, this time, Telkom University held a webinar with the topic “Establishing International Cooperation in Higher Education in Creating Excellent Human Resources” on Monday, August 10, 2020 to learn and share together from three extraordinary Indonesian ambassadors.
The 1st speaker was ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia in Pretoria, Republic of South Africa and Accredited to the Republic of Botswana, Kingdom of Lesotho, and Kingdom of Eswatini, H.E. Mr. Salman Al Farisi. Based on the Joint Declaration on a Strategic Partnership since 2008, Indonesia and South Africa are strategic partners. South Africa is the only African country that has a strategic partnership agreement with Indonesia. Various Indonesian universities have established cooperation with several universities in South Africa since then. South Africa has 26 state universities with nearly one million students. Areas such as mining and mineral engineering (Wits, Stellenbosch, UCT, UP), public health (Wits, UKZN) are fields of study that can be developed and collaborated with South Africa.
The 2nd speaker was the ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia in Hanoi, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, H. E. Mr. Ibnu Hadi, S. E., M. Ec.The MoU on education cooperation between Indonesia and Viet Nam was firstly established in 2005. Educational collaborations that can be established with universities in Viet Nam are Indonesian Language Teaching, Scholarship on Degree and Non-degree Program, and Lectures and Students Exchange Program. There are 170 state universities and 65 private universities in Viet Nam, categorized into three types of higher education including: 1) Dai Hoc / University: multidisciplinary, 2) Truong Cao Dang/Junior College: specialized fields or equivalent D3 in Indonesia, and 3) Hoc Vien/Academy: specialized fields of study and have the capacity for research.
The 3rd speaker was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia in Kyiv, Ukraine Accredited for Georgia & Armenia, H.E. Mr. Prof. Dr. Yuddy Chrisnandi, M. E. The educational cooperation between Indonesia and Ukraine, Armenia, and Georgia includes the Darmasiswa Program which has been implemented since 2003 until now. There is a Center for Indonesian Language and Literature Studies at KNU Taras Shevchenko which was established in April 2015 in collaboration between the KNU Taras Shevchenko and the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv through the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation on the Establishment of a Center for Indonesian Language and Literature Studies at KNU Taras Shevchenko (3 April 2015).
Based on the discussion session, there are several strategies or keys to the success of establishing international cooperation, including:
- List the universities from a country as a starting reference, look at their university rankings by world ranking.
- Explore the potential of each university, including our university and university target. Find its strong point.
- Focus on deliverable program; concrete programs that can be cooperated.
- It only allows partial scholarship, look for a third party who can cover other costs such as accommodation and transportation.
- Prepare cooperation draft; MoU or MoA draft.
- Appoint great delegation in term of communication and negotiation skill. If necessary, delegates who can speak the language of the country.
Basically, all Indonesian Embassies are ready to fully support and assist Indonesian universities to collaborate with universities in the countries they are assigned to.(IO)***
