TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Research and Technology Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has pledged to support the policy on higher education issued by Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim.

Bambang claimed he has high hopes of the reform, especially one that would allow students to take courses or an internship outside their major program to strengthen the country’s research sector.

He opined that every student could benefit from the three-semester internship regulation by conducting research. “For example, they can be a research intern or participate in a community service work program. That potentially increases the number of researchers in the future,” the minister remarked at the BPPT II Building, Central Jakarta, Monday, January 27.

According to Bambang who is also the head of the National Research and Innovation Agency, researchers mostly came from university students. However, it is now rather difficult to find young people who are interested in research, and that was attributable to the limited access to research in college, he added.

Bambang further hoped Nadiem Makarim’s policy could widely open the access to research at the university level. He also vowed to welcome and encourage college students to obtain the ministry’s research grant funds.

"This is a positive program to strengthen the research sector and diversify universities to not only focus on lectures but also research," Minister Bambang concluded.

MOH KHORY ALFARIZI