Erasmus Training Centre in Jakarta promotes exchange of students and academics
The Erasmus Training Centre in Jakarta supports the exchange of students and researchers between the Netherlands and Indonesia, with training courses and language lessons. The centre was opened officially on 13 February by Minister of Education Jet Bussemaker.
Training centre and meeting platform
The Erasmus Training Centre is an initiative of Leiden University together with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Groningen University, Stenden Hogeschool, the Netherlands Embassy in Indonesia and Nuffic Neso Indonesia. The centre supports Indonesian students and researchers with courses in English, Dutch and academic skills to make it easier for them to gain access to Dutch higher education. The centre also offers courses in Bahasa Indonesian for Dutch people (and people from other countries). The Erasmus Training Centre is also a platform for bringing together Dutch universities and Indonesian professionals and the organisations they work for.
Unique international partnership
Roughly a hundred Indonesian alumni of Dutch higher education were present at the opening of the Erasmus Training Centre. Together with representatives of their current employers, they debated the advantages of studying abroad and life-long learning. Minister Bussemaker performed the official opening and congratulated the educational insitutions involved and other initiators on this unique partnership. ‘I hope that the new Erasmus Training Centre can contribute to more person-to-person contacts between the Netherlands and Indonesia, and to further internationalisation of both Indonesian and Dutch education.'
COSMOPOLIS
Minister Bussemaker will also visit Yogyakarta during her stay in Indonesia, where she will be updated on the COSMOPOLIS project headedby Leiden Professor Jos Gommans (Colonial and Global History). The project is a partnership between Leiden University and the National Archive in The Hague, who are also working with Asian universities and local cultural institutions. The aim is to make Dutch archive sources in and about Asia accessible and available for study and research.