More Indonesian students choose to study in China's universities
More Indonesian students choose to study in China's universities
Remmy Faizal, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The number of Indonesians studying in China stood at 3,750 in
2004, with the majority of them taking language courses.
"The number represents an increase of between 30 and 40
percent from the year before," marketing director of the
Universal Language Program Sudjadi Sudjianto said during a one-
day Chinese education exhibition here on Sunday.
Wealthy Indonesians students will often continue their studies
in Australia, North America or Europe.
Sudjadi said that it was high time for Indonesians to look at
what Chinese schools had to offer.
Indonesia, according to Sudjadi, has the fifth largest number
of students studying in China behind South Korea, Japan, the
United States, and Vietnam.
According to Sudjadi, the cost of studying in China is
relatively cheaper than other countries. Costs of tuition, board
and lodging plus plane tickets range between US$6,000 and $8,000
a year.
The exhibition, the fourth of its kind, was opened by Zhou
Bin, the cultural attache at the Peoples Republic of China's
embassy in Jakarta. Aside from introducing the Chinese education
system and helping Indonesians study in China, the exhibition
also aims to enhance cooperation between the two countries
especially in the education sector.
Also attending the exhibition was deputy director general of
the Chinese Service Center of Scholarly Exchange from the Chinese
Ministry of Education, LI Guiling.
LI said that the world's interest in Chinese education was
continuing to increase.
"The fact is that whenever university graduates from China
choose to continue their studies abroad, they usually get high
credits. Also, when they compete in any sort of mathematics or
physics Olympiad, they tend to finish in the high ranks. That is
the barometer," she said.
LI then explained that those kind of achievements attract
people from around the world to get their education in China.
A visitor to the exhibition, Nanang Hermansyah, vice principal
of Al Izhar Senior High School, said he was curious about Chinese
education.
"Generally alumnus from our school would continue their
studies in other countries, including Australia or the United
States, but recently two went to China to study and that made me
curious," he explained.