Chinese schools lure more Indonesians
P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Like other neighboring countries, China is attempting to encourage more Indonesian students to study in that country by holding education exhibitions in two major cities -- Jakarta and Surabaya.
Shao Wei, deputy director general of the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE), a unit of the Chinese Ministry of Education, said here on Saturday that his team was planning to visit universities in both cities.
"We accept around 2,500 students from Indonesia each year and now we hope that we can increase the number to 5,000," Shao said after opening a two-day exhibition called China Education Exhibition 2004 on Saturday.
A similar exhibition is being held in Surabaya on May 10.
Overseas educational institutions from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Europe have aggressively promoted themselves here. Almost every year the overseas universities promote their schools and programs in Jakarta and always attract large audiences.
A survey conducted last year at 36 universities in Australia revealed that 8,897 Indonesians were enrolled in full-degree programs there, a 3.2 percent decrease from the previous year.
With 31 universities and three junior and high schools being promoted, the China education exhibition looks set to compete with the Western schools. It is the third such exhibition in Jakarta and first in Surabaya.
Organizing committee member Sudjadi Sudjianto from education consultancy firm Unilink Professindo said last year's event had resulted in 3,738 Indonesians deciding to study in China.
Shao claimed that Chinese university graduates were recognized by more than 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and France. "So, graduates of our universities do get international recognition," said Shao.
He added that at least 77,715 foreign students from 175 countries enrolled in 353 educational institutions in China in 2003.
Indonesian students accounted for 2,563 of these, the fifth largest number after South Korea with 30,000 students, Japan with 10,000, the United States with 4,000 and Vietnam with 3,000.
Shao also said that China hoped to develop even better bilateral relations with Indonesia, especially in the fields of education and culture.
"We want to learn Indonesia's culture from students who take courses in our country, while they can also learn about China's culture during their stay there," he said.
China, which has an area of 9.8 million square kilometers, is the world's most populous country with a population of close to 1.3 billion as of the July 2003 census.
In 1949, up to 95 percent of the country's citizens were illiterate. Forty years later, however, the country has managed to develop a strong education sector as reflected in the number of educational institutions and students.
The latest data shows that China had 946,000 education institutions in 1995, with the total number of students standing at 223.7 million.