Education Fair to Attract More Indonesian Students to Europe

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The European Union Ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guerend and Ali Ghufron, the Director General of Higher Education at the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, opened the European Higher Education Fair (EHEF) in Balai Kartini, Jakarta on November 5. This is the 8^th time such event has been held in Indonesia.

With 138 exhibitors this year, Guerend invited prospective students to consider getting their higher degrees in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden or Switzerland. The EU Ambassador said in this opening speech that there are currently more than 9,600 Indonesian students currently studying in Europe this year. The number increased from around 8,800 last year.

“Studying in Europe brings a lot of diversity and opportunity because Europe has many of the top universities in the world, making it a safe choice,” he added.

Although the number of students continues to increase every year, Guerend said that considering the population of Indonesia and 6 million students in the country, there is a lot more potential for cooperation in the education sector between Indonesia and the EU.

But he added that it must not be a one-sided cooperation. The European Union is also encouraging European students to come to Indonesia. “We grant scholarship to European scholars to come to Indonesia and study at Indonesian university. The number might be lower but nevertheless we want this to grow as well,” said Guerend.

Meanwhile, Ali said that the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education is very committed to enhance the capacity and quality of research and study in the country. The past two months, his team has sent more than 1,500 researchers to different countries in the world, mostly in Europe.

“We want to increase the number of academics with masters and doctoral degrees through various programs including postgraduate scholarship and research grants,” he added.

AMANDA SIDDHARTA