After attending the Ambassadors Town Hall Meeting - ASEAN Higher Education Conference (AHEC) here on Wednesday, the ministry's acting director general of higher education, research, and technology, Nizam, said that Indonesia has started student exchanges and programs for improving education quality in ASEAN.
"We are utilizing it, AHEC, for education event in the field of higher education. This is crucial so that Indonesia can become a pioneer in building the collaboration of higher education in ASEAN through student mobility, student exchange," he explained.
He noted that Indonesia, which is the ASEAN chair this year, has sent hundreds of students through the Emancipated Campus program to universities in ASEAN. If this step is followed by others, students' quality and experience will develop.
According to him, student mobility will build friendship and brotherhood among students who will become future leaders of ASEAN. That way, the togetherness of the ASEAN community can be realized quickly.
He informed that several programs have been initiated as part of student exchange efforts. The first is the Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA), which is a part of the Emancipated Campus program.
Through IISMA, students spend one semester at partner universities abroad and the credits can be transferred to Indonesian universities.
The second level is student exchange carried out by universities in Indonesia through joint action in various forms.
The third level is the ASEAN Credit Transfer System (ACTS), which enables students to take classes from universities that are members of the ASEAN University Network (AUN) and allows their credits to be transferred to their respective universities in Indonesia later.
Fourth, Indonesia, together with other universities in ASEAN, is currently working on double degree programs between universities, he said.
"Thus, we are currently encouraging and promoting these four programs," Nizam added.
Translator: Linna Susanti, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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