Indonesia is an archipelago country with 18,108 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited. It is located in Southern East Asia bordering Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Australia, the Philippines and East Timor.
Indonesia’s total area is 1.9 million square kilometres spanning 3.977 miles from East to West and consisting of 3 time zones. Currently, Indonesia has 33 provinces. The density varies greatly from island to island. The capital city is Jakarta which is one of the densest populated cities in the world with 12,957 inhabitants per sq km.
The total population in year 2005 is estimated at 225.3 million with an equal proportion of men and women. According to age structure, the population composition is:
- 29.1 percent of 0-14 years
- 65.7 percent of 15-64 years
- 5.2 percent of 65 years and over.
The current estimated population growth rate is 1.45 percent.
Indonesians are identified with an ethnic entity, often linked to a specific language, customs and traditions and regional origins. Islam is Indonesia’s main religion (almost 88 percent of all Indonesians), making Indonesia the most populous Muslim-majority nation in the world.
Indonesia’s economy is on a moderate growth path with GDP expected to rise by 6-6.5 percent during 2006-2007, supported by stronger domestic consumption and investment. Gross investment is expected to increase to 22-26 percent of GDP, stimulated by the new Government’s planned measures to enhance certainty for investors.
The government’s new Medium Term Development Plan for the next five years, aims to raise the economic growth target to six or seven percent a year, lower the unemployment rate from 20.26 percent in 2005 to 6.7 percent in 2009 and to achieve a reduction in poverty incidence from 16.6 percent in 2004 to eight point two percent in 2009.
Economic growth in Indonesia has increased to 6.3 per cent in 2007 compare to 5 per cent in 2006 despite recent turbulence in financial market and oil prices. In 2008 the World Bank estimates that the growth will increase to 6.4 per cent in 2008 supported by the growth in domestic investment and exports. Reflecting the strong economic growth, unemployment declined from 10.6 per cent in 2006 to 9.8 per cent in 2007.
In education, the Government of Indonesia made political commitments for achieving basic education for all. In this broader context, national level reflections were engaged for developing a new vision of education, as part of the reform in Indonesia, which emphasise the implementation of the principles of democracy, autonomy, decentralization, and public accountability. The reforms in the education system have given prominence to enhancing its performance in the framework of even distribution of educational opportunities. This reform process has a fundamental impact on the national education system and it’s mission to meet various challenges in the present day world.
The key targets include expansion and equity; the improvement of quality and relevance and the implementation of autonomy in higher education. The Law seeks to open access to education at all levels and all forms - formal, non-formal, as well as informal - for all the citizens of Indonesia. Its main thrust is to make education relevant to societal needs; to develop further community-based education; and to enhance participation by the community in supporting basic education. It provides rights and obligations of citizens, parents, community, and Government.
Indonesian government through its Ministry of National Education (MoNE) now is pushing universities in Indonesia to achieve a prominent international position in the world especially in Asia through joint collaboration in research and programme with university abroad. In order to support this Directorate General of Higher Education already identified 50 promising universities from 2,315 higher education institutions (81 state institutions and 2,235 private institutions) in Indonesia in the effort to introduce those institutions to the academic community in the world enabling them to choose an appropriate partner to establish cooperation. These 50 promising universities were selected based on: Awards, Student Life, Facility, Research and Community Service and International Collaboration.
For the development of teaching staff quality at higher education institution (universities), MoNE providing scholarships opportunity for lecturers taking master degree and PhD abroad. In 2008 it’s expected that 500 lectures will be receiving this scholarships.
The Indonesian education system recognizes two different paths of education: school education and non-formal education. Non-formal education is aimed at developing learners’ potentials with emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge and functional skills and developing personality and professional attitudes.
Nowadays, Indonesia school education adopts a six-three-three-four school education system, which consists of six years of primary, three years of junior secondary, three years of higher secondary, and four years of higher education.
- Primary school: has a duration of six years of education, and receives new pupils regardless of having graduated from Kindergarten or not. Based on the effective legislation, primary school was basic education that continued after the entire education of Kindergarten. This consists of a general education program.
- Junior & Senior Secondary School: with a total six years of study (three years at Junior level and three years at Senior level) after Primary School. There has been a rapid growth in the range of types of vocational senior secondary schools such as — Higher Secondary School-Economics, Higher Secondary School-Family Welfare, and Secondary Technical School — the other types of schools developed were: Teacher Education School, Higher Secondary Sports School, Household Technology Secondary School, Secondary School on Social Education, Secondary School on Industrial Handicraft, Secondary School on Indonesian Arts, Secondary School of Art, Secondary School of Music, and Secondary School on Agricultural Technology.
- Higher Education University; with three to four years for bachelor level and five to seven years for graduate level taken up through university, institute, academy, or other higher education institutions
Demand for overseas education in Indonesia is concentrated, for the most part, in the major cities of Java such as Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Sumatra (Medan), as well as, to a lesser extent, in the smaller cities of Semarang and Yogyakarta. Economically, socially and politically, Indonesia remains very much a centralised state and Jakarta is the heart of the economic and social life of the country. With wide access to information it is unsurprising, therefore, that Jakarta provides a large majority of Indonesians choosing the UK as study destination.
A one-year master’s degree course is the Unique Selling Point for Education UK in the Indonesian market with around 60 percent of Indonesia students who continue their study in UK pursuing a Postgraduate programme.
However, competition in this market is getting tougher and we seen for the last two years the number of postgraduate students from Indonesia is declining due to several reasons:
- The competition for Postgraduate programme currently is not only coming from traditional study destination countries such as Australia and USA but also from countries like Japan, Germany and Netherlands where programme deliver in English.
- The cost of study abroad still one of the main issue for most of the students, perception of high cost in UK (study and living) due to higher exchange rate for UK Pound sterling compare to other currencies.
- Increasing quality of higher education in Indonesia through international collaboration and curriculum development, students have a more affordability option to continue their postgraduate degree in Indonesia
It is the undergraduate sector that shows slight growth in the last two years with the increased numbers of National Plus Schools offering IB and A-Level programs that can provide direct entry to the undergraduate program in the UK. There is a potential for this market to develop more in the future. Australia and the USA used to be a dominant position in this market, but Malaysia and Singapore are now becoming more active in the Indonesian market, recruiting undergraduate students and as result now they are the key market in this sector.
The market leaders remain to be USA and Australia, with Germany, Netherlands and Japan grows its popularity among the students at the postgraduate level.
The USA has been recruiting Indonesian students for longer than other competitors. AMINEF provides information on study opportunities in the USA, and 'family tradition', whereby one or other parent or a brother / sister may have attended an American university, is often a major contributory factor in an Indonesian choosing to study there.
Australia makes extensive use of agents, and has geographical proximity to Indonesia (important to parents) and a favourable climate as its main attractions. It support with continuous visits and promotion that Australia University does in Indonesia either by them selves or with the education agents. Australia University also very active in creating link and partnership with Indonesia universities.
In the undergraduate sector besides USA and Australia, alternative destinations such as Malaysia and Singapore remain popular, especially Malaysia, which is able to attract a large number of undergraduate students from Indonesia each year because of their off-shore programme with Australia and UK universities.
In the face of these competitors, encouraging self-funding Indonesians to 'dare to be different' by opting to study in the UK is the kernel of the challenge. It will need intensive promotion of UK Education through different channel (exhibition, education agents and school and university network) to maintain our market share in the future.
Starting from November 2004, British Council Indonesia moves to a new office located in the main business district area at the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building. There is limited access for visitors and we do not provide any consultation to students or display promotion materials for this reason. Much of our Education UK work now is delivered by working with local partners (education agents, educational institutions and scholarship providers) and visits through Education UK presentations and exhibitions.
As part of our support for the development of higher education in Indonesia and building good partnerships between UK and Indonesian higher institutions, our focus now will be targeted at 50 promising universities that already been identified by the MoNE providing them opportunity for development of programme and research collaboration using PMI2 and DelPHE. Through PMI2 programme and symposium we also want to improve our level of engagement and working relations with policy makers from Ministry of National Education.
Education UK regularly runs two major exhibitions per year, in April and November (for postgraduate programmes only). Major exhibitions are usually held in Jakarta and Bandung. Based on the current review on the service and value for money of British Council exhibition compare to other similar exhibition run by agents we will continue to find complementary activities/services that could support our major exhibition. At the Education UK Postgraduate Exhibition in November 2007 we run UK Alumni Job Fair in Jakarta, trying to build the reputation and creating positive perceptions towards UK qualifications among the major companies and prospective students in Indonesia. The response from the alumni and participating companies were positive and we are aiming to make the Job Fair as the annual event.
We also look for new market opportunity by expanding our reach and activities to major cities outside Java like Makassar, Pekanbaru and Palembang through mini exhibition, institutional visits and attending agents’ exhibition. Activities will be focusing a tighter geographical with possibly large potential students – targeting major Indonesian cities where the prospects for successful recruitment of students seem most promising, thereby delivered an effective approach in the Indonesia market.
A database of 465 high schools and 150 universities in eight major cities in Indonesia has been developed which could be use by UK institution to target specific institutions for promotion and partnership purpose.
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