Many lecturers fail to attain scholarship abroad due to their low level of mastering the foreign language.
"In its early phase, we give scholarships for 150 lecturers of state as well as private universities in the country. They will have a three-month English course," Ali Ghufron Mukti, Director General of the ministrys Science and Technology Resource and Higher Education, said here on Tuesday.
The training started by the end of October and will be carried out in some universities, including Malang State University, Yogyakarta State University and University of Indonesia.
"The aim is to improve the English proficiency for lecturers, as measured by IELTS and TOEFL level," Ghufrin said.
He said that mastering the language better would help them to get post-graduate as well as doctoral scholarships abroad.
Currently, the ministry is yet to fulfill the quota of 300 Scholarship Abroad for Indonesian Lecturers (BUDI LN).
"The number of lecturers who get BUDI LN scholarships has only reached 167. Therefore, we have reopened the submission for 130 lecturers."
Manager for Australian Technology Network (ATN) Josephine Ratna said that many lecturers were unqualified for the application because of their weak English writing skills.
"Many have failed to qualify because of their poor English language skills while submitting applications to universities," Ratna said. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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