It is the ambition of the Leiden University Medical Center, whose students study medicine and biomedical sciences, to ensure that essential elements of internationalisation are incorporated into its core business of education. The LUMC sets clear goals that respond to the needs of its students for international experience while at the same time contributing to bridging the divide in terms of disparities in education worldwide. The LUMC believes that students should be exposed to much more diverse problems than those they encounter at home and that, by creating international classes with different views, stronger discussions will be generated where problems can be approached and fresh solutions found. 

To achieve our goal and to create international classes, we have identified Universitas Indonesia, Faculty of Medicine (FMUI) as an essential partner to improve student preparedness for a future with expanded horizons. An ICM project has previously been granted for the cooperation between the LUMC and the FMUI. The current mobility project aims to consolidate the already existing partnership.

Leiden University is developing a strategic long-term collaboration policy for a small number of priority countries/regions, including Indonesia, but also China, Latin America & the Caribbean. The goal is to strengthen cooperation and establish structural relationships with universities, organisations and governmental bodies in these priority regions. A steering committee is in place for collaboration between Leiden University and Indonesia, with the mandate not only to harmonise but importantly to stimulate innovative and interdisciplinary collaborations in education with Indonesia.

Internationalisation of higher education in Indonesia

Indonesia’s contributions to international scientific research are growing, but remain small relative to its population. The Indonesian government is committed to strengthening the capacity of its higher education institutions to produce world-class scientific research. Moreover, on 28 September 2019, the EU organised an information session on the international dimension of the Erasmus Plus programme to 100 representatives of Indonesian universities with the aim of providing support to higher education institutions in Indonesia through institutional and capacity-building projects.

Regarding the scope of outbound student mobility, world education news and reviews report that, despite being the world’s fourth-largest country in terms of population, Indonesia was only the 22nd sender of international students worldwide in 2017, i.e. less than 1% of more than 5 million students studied abroad that year. Although growing, outbound mobility is still limited. The financial resources of this project will therefore be expected to equip students with high-value knowledge and skills to allow them to contribute to improving the quality of education and research in their home country. These students are also expected to become the future Indonesian scientists who will collaborate with international partners in utilising research grants inside and outside the country, to further increase Indonesian contributions to the international scientific research capacity of their home country. 

Internationalisation at FMUI

As the national centre of medical education, the FMUI seeks to preserve its excellence in globalisation through systematic internationalisation efforts. The FMUI offers  an international degree in medicine and also special joint programmes with universities in Australia and the United Kingdom. With the government of Indonesia giving increasing importance to internationalisation, the universities are gearing up for more mature programmes where more partnerships are sought for exchange students.