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.