The Indonesian and British governments held the 3rd meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Higher Education, Research, Technology and Innovation on 9 May 2019.

The meeting discussed the progress and future plans of the RI-UK bilateral cooperation which began in 2015. The Indonesian-British Working Committee meeting was led by the British Ambassador to Indonesia Moazzam Malik and Director General of Institutional Science and Technology Institution Patdono Soewignyo.

In the meeting of the two countries, they appreciated each other's achievements and the results of bilateral cooperation, with topics discussed including Higher education and vocational education, lecturer and student mobility, the Newton Fund Program, Language training and renewal of research and innovation cooperation.

British Ambassador Moazzam Malik summarised the meeting as follows:

1. The UK will explore cooperation with Indonesia in the field of online learning.
2. The JWG aims to further develop collaboration for HE and TVET programs
3. In terms of student mobility, there are currently many Indonesian students in the UK, but in the future the UK Government is also willing to send young students to Indonesia.
4. The British government also highly appreciates the implementation and achievement of the Newton Fund program in Indonesia and believes in the sustainability of the program.
5. The British government expressed appreciation for the achievement of the Industry Academia Partnership Program and Leadership in Innovation Fellowship programme, but it is necessary to examine the possibility of co-funding from Indonesia.
6. Both Countries are aware that the deadline of the MoU on Research and Innovation Partnership (Newton Fund) will end in July 2019, and aim to complete it before the end of June 2019.

Both parties agreed that the 4th Working Committee meeting will be held in November 2019.

Commentary by Audrie Adriana Sanova

To conclude, some key outcomes from the meeting are as follows;

1. There will hopefully be more opportunities for UK higher education institutions to explore partnerships with local universities in the area of online / blended learning in the future.
2. The Indonesian government is actively investing and developing Technical and Vocational sEducation and Training programmes (TVET) to improve the competence of Indonesian human resources. Therefore, UK education institutions that are keen to collaborate within this area are welcomed by the local government.
3. Both governments agreed to increase the number of UK students coming to Indonesia. Therefore, exploring summer school and student exchange programme collaboration is encouraged.    

Source:

(Edukasi.kompas.com, 10 May 2019)

Seven Important Points of Higher Education Cooperation between Indonesia and Britain