Jababeka Education Park: Where tomorrow's leaders come together
Jababeka Education Park: Where tomorrow's leaders come together
Only a few technology-based cities are still concerned with education, and Jababeka, a new city about 35 km east of Jakarta, is one of these few.
More than anything else, this newly built city nurtures a strong ambition to be home to an integrated educational area, where, with the full support from over 1,000 hightech-based companies, students at all levels can undertake practical study.
Spanning across 5,500 hectares, Jababeka City in Cikarang, Bekasi now boasts a population close to 1 million. This highly integrated area, that started construction in early 1989, wanted to provide itself with international-level educational facilities, an aspiration that has now been translated into reality with the establishment of Jababeka Education Park.
Conceptually, this education center has as its origins in an idea developed by Professor Brian Lee of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. The establishment of Jababeka Education Park is indeed a strategic step towards turning Jababeka into an educational city. A number of schools, ranging from kindergartens to international-level state and private universities, have been established there.
The educational institutions now established in this area are, among others, President University, President Senior High School, which is a boarding school, Industrial Mechanical Engineering College (ATMI), Graduate School of Business Management (MBA) of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Continuing Education Program (CEP) of the Engineering School of the University of Indonesia, Gunadarma University, STIE Dwipayana, Proven Force Indonesia of Productivity Improvement Consultant, as well as Al Azhar and BPK Penabur kindergartens, elementary schools and junior high schools.
The international community has responded warmly to the establishment of President University, where English is the medium of instruction. Now in its third year, President University, which has its own student dormitory, can boast 500 students.
About 200 of them have come from China and Vietnam, while the rest come from various regions in Indonesia. Interestingly, 70 percent of the students at this university -- whose motto reads "Where Tomorrow's Leaders Come Together" -- enjoy full scholarships.
Regarding efforts to foster and develop the intellectual ability of the students at President University, Professor Don Watts, International Chancellor also a former Vice Chancellor Curtin University & founder Bond University Australia, says that this university, which is made up of the School of Business, the School of Engineering and the School of Computing, efforts are geared towards shaping students' scientific aptitudes in dealing with daily problems and providing them with the right competencies to solve these problems.
Meanwhile, the development of the students' personality is set towards turning them into graduates with strong, but populist, leadership.
Globalization is indeed unavoidable, and considerably impacts the economic and educational spheres. "The presence of a university in an international-standard industrial area is inevitable. Both establish a mutually beneficial symbiosis that, at the same time, forms a synergy," said Professor Lee, also the technical advisor of Jababeka Education Park.
And, indeed, added Setyono Djuandi Darmono, president director of PT Jababeka Tbk, Jababeka Education Park enjoys the full support of no fewer than 1,115 domestic and multinational companies operating in Jababeka Techno Park, such as Unilever, ICI, Samsung Electronics, Nippon EGI (Sumitomo), Mattel, United Tractor, Nissan, Kao Indonesia, Video Glass Indonesia, Akzo Nobel and Stork.
Students at all levels are always welcomed to do their practical work and practice the theories they have learnt at school in these companies. In short, Jababeka Education has become Indonesia's first technology-based education center.
With the inclusion of the concept of link-and-match in the curriculum, the Education Park will produce highly trained graduates ready to take up career challenges.
Facilities in all their variety are what PT Jababeka Tbk, the developer of Kota Jababeka, has always striven to provide. Aside from the establishment of an industrial area, a housing estate and an education park and a commercial area, Jababeka Central Business District is now being developed on a 16-hectare plot of land.
With the opening in April 2003 of Plaza JB Mal Jababeka and Jababeka Center in this commercial area, Jababeka Central Business District has become a center for a leisurely stroll with stores offering a wide range of necessities ranging from fashion and beauty products to cellular telephones and banking facilities.
Meanwhile, the construction of the Capitol Business Park, including the President Executive Club, is still going on and is expected to be completed early next year.
Just a modest rural area two decades ago, Jababeka can now pride itself on being one of Indonesia's icons of development. Gardens, office compounds, posh houses, a first-class golf course (Jababeka Golf & Country Club), a shopping center and hotels can now be found in this dynamic new city.
The establishment of independent towns as satellite cities often fails, often ending up as a burden on Jakarta because of the absence of equilibrium in the facilities provided.
Aware of this fact, Kota Jababeka made sure that the establishment of its educational area, the Jababeka Education Park, was not separated from its environment, meaning that graduates of those pursuing studies in this Center will be ready to take up any employment opportunities that the industrial enterprises operating in this city might offer.
At present Jababeka is home to about 1,115 industrial undertakings owned by companies from 21 countries, among others Japan (104), Korea (122), Malaysia (22), Taiwan (35), Singapore (27), the United States (19), Australia (12) and Britain (5).
These industrial establishments are made up of 208 large-scale industrial undertakings or multinational corporations, 496 mid- scale industrial undertakings or national corporations, 357 mid- scale industrial businesses and 287 industrial undertakings owned by small and medium enterprises.
In Kota Jababeka, a Small and Medium Enterprises (UKM) Center is now under construction. This center, said president director of PT Jababeka Tbk, Setyono Djuandi Darmono, will accommodate small- and medium-scale industrial undertakings in a special cluster.
These industrial undertakings, he said, are important as they can act as feeders to major industrial establishments. An automotive company, for example, does not need to outsource the manufacturing of their spare parts outside Jababeka. In the UKM Center there will be small-scale vendors that can supply the automotive company with this particular need.
If you need trained and skilled human resources, they are available ranging from those with practical skills to experts. They are graduates from the educational institutions around Kota Jababeka, or, in particular, from Jababeka Education Park. Professor Brian Lee, the technical advisor to the Jababeka Education Park, says that this concept is similar to that adopted by Singapore.
On August 17, Professor Dr. Muliawati G. Siswanto, M.Eng.Sc., Rector of President University, signed an MOU agreement with Professor Yohanes Surya, Ph.D from Asian Physics Olympiad (Apho).
The MOU signing take place at President University Campus, compromise the development of President University International Center for Physic Olympiad, consists of 18 laboratories and training camp, that will become the center for all the participants of physic Olympiad from all over Indonesia.
Caption :
DORMITORY: One of dormitory facilities provided by the Jababeka Education Park for senior high school and university students.
FACTORY: One of the Standard Factory Building in Jababeka Industrial Park.