ADS brings RI closer to Australia

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Providing scholarships to Indonesians does not only help the awardees, Australia believes, but also brings the two countries closer to understanding their differences and similarities.

"Australia and Indonesia are bound by our proximity and it is important that both countries have much more experience of each other," Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) program leader David Spiller said. "And anything that can bring the countries closer is important."

Each year, the Australian government sponsors people from a number of developing countries, including Indonesia, to study in Australia through the program.

In Indonesia, the ADS program has two categories, namely the public sector -- which accommodates employees from government departments, state universities and state enterprises -- and the open sector for individuals.

With an annual funding of A$35 million (Rp 277.4 billion), or 25 percent of AusAID funding for Indonesia, the program offers 270 scholarships for master degrees and 30 for PhD levels.

"It is basically a program focused on strengthening institutional capacity," he added. "In addition to that, I think these kinds of programs strengthen the relationship between our countries.

"We receive between 3,500 to 4,500 applications a year," said Spiller. "The only time when the number significantly dropped was in 1999 when the East Timor issue arose.

"We are trying to balance the ratio between men and women, as well as having a good spread across Indonesia," he said.

Spiller pointed out that fewer applications came from eastern Indonesia and "to extend that we try to have a targeted category for people who work in sectors associated with AusAID projects in the area".

Since the tsunami, his has office introduced the new Australian Partnership Scholarship program for 300 additional scholarships for candidates from all over Indonesia.

"We are looking for people who have a clear idea on what they want to achieve and how that will benefit them as well as the country at large," he said.

Areas of study are in economic management, democratic institutions and practice, basic social services and security and stability.

The example fields of study are agribusiness, agriculture, computer science and information technology, conflict resolution, decentralization, development studies and others related to the above areas.

ADS works with 18 Australian state universities, including the Australian National University in Canberra, the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne and Monash University in Clayton, Victoria.

Interested parties should apply by Sept. 9. (003)