IAIN supports plan to recruit 200 foreign lecturers

Samarinda (Antaranews Kaltim) - The government controversial plan to recruit 200 foreign lecturers has strong support from the rector of the state Islamic Institute (IAIN) of Samarinda Dr Mukhamad Ilyasin, MPd.

The plan of the Minister for Research and Technology and Higher Educational Institutes Muhammad Nasir to recruit 200 lecturers from abroad is needed to improve the country`s reputation in education, Dr Ilyasin said.

"It has to be admitted that a number of universities in the country still lack teaching staff for certain fields of study," he said here on Wednesday.

He said he fully agreed with the government`s program, adding IAIN even had asked for lecturers from Australia as part of the national program .

"In fact we plan to ask for two lecturers from Australia, one for English lecturer," he said.

He said he was aware that the government`s program would draw pros and cons among the academicians as not all high educational institutes share the same opinion about the program.

"For us it is simple and think positively as we indeed need foreign lecturers to give a trigger for improvement in educational quality," he said.

Ilyasin said the cost of employing foreign lecturers would be shared between the government and the university concerned.

"The government pays their salaries and the university provides the accommodations," he said.

He said IAIN prefer lecturers from Australia on cost consideration , adding it would cost much by recruiting lecturers from the United States.

The government had also announced a controversial decision allowing foreign, private universities, mainly leading universities to operate in the country.

By mid-2018 the first foreign university should be able to open its doors in Indonesia, Minister Muhammad Nasir said.

"We provide opportunities for foreign universities, especially the world`s leading universities to start operating in Indonesia," Nasir said earlier this year.

Foreign universities will be able to operate in the country under the strict requirement that they operate in partnership with existing local universities with curriculum to focus on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, business, technology, or management.

Nasir said a number of foreign universities have already shown their interest in opening a branch in Indonesia such as the University of Cambridge, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Queensland.

One advantage of having leading foreign universities in Indonesia would be that Indonesian students no longer need to go abroad to obtain good education and prestigious degrees.

Every year, thousands of Indonesian students go to the United Kingdom for a bachelor`s or master`s degree, often paid by themselves.

The foreign universities could grow to become a foreign exchange earner as students from other Asian countries could be attracted to study at the foreign universities, an observers said.

A number of local universities, however, see the policy as a threat to their existence.

The policy is line with the government program to give greater priority to human resource development in 2019.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has said the priority in development in 2019 would be human resource development (HRD).

"I want we will step in to a second big phase that is investment in human resource development. We will prepare the program this year, that next year we are right in the second phase of activities," the president said earlier this month.

The president said in the first 3.5 years of his administration since 2014, had focused on development and investment infrastructure.

In the first three years of Jokowi administration, the country has focused more on massive infrastructure development , building new toll road, airports, seaports, big dams, and power plants and opening isolated areas especially in frontier areas. (*)