Indonesians Studying in China Rising in Number

Posted on 31 May 2015

Jakarta, GIVnews.com – China is becoming one of the top destinations for young Indonesians to further their education. Since 2010, the number of Indonesian students in Chinese universities has reached 13,700 people with an annual rise by 10 percent.

“The majority of them studied in the department of Chinese languages,” Sudjadi, chairman of the organizing committee of China Education Exhibition (CEE) 2015, said at Universitas Indonesia (UI) in Depok, West Java, on Wednesday (27/5) as reported by Kompas daily. Since 2010, CEE has been held 12 times in Indonesia, under the cooperation between the Chinese Service Center Exchange (CSCSE) and Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

According to the CCSCSE, the number of Indonesian students in China has increased 10 percent annually over the past several years. While the majority of them have studied Chinese language and literature, the number of those entering other fields of studies is rising, including the fields industrial technology, industry and medicines, CCSCSE said.

Visiting Chinese Premier Liu Yandong opened the CEE 2015 in Depok. In her speech she expressed her hope that in the future many more young Indonesians will go to China to study technology, agriculture, healthcare and others, in addition to the Chinese language and literature.

“We wish to strengthen the relationships between students, lecturers and the whole civitas academica from Indonesia and China, Premier Liu said.

Meanwhile, Tiur Nabilah Nasution, a student from Universitas Indonesia’s Chinese studies department, said that she was interested to continue her study in China, focusing on the Chinese culture. “China’s technological achievements have not driven it to neglect its culture. So we will also learn about Chinese operas and history,” said Tiur.

Another student, Rizki Arif from Universitas Indonesia’s physics department, wants to obtain a master’s degree in physics from a Chinese university. “In my view, China has made many breakthroughs, and, like Germany, it is more developed than many other countries in physics,” Rizki said. Like many other students who visited CEE in Depok, Rizki was seeking information about scholarships for studying in China.

During the Depok exhibition, CSCSE explained to visitors that every higher learning institutes in China use international standards with local characteristics. “Students in Chinese universities are obliged to study China’s history and culture,” Sujadi said.

China’s ascendancy as a political and economic superpower has driven more young Indonesians, Chinese and indigenous, to study in that country. Meanwhile, the number of Indonesians studying Mandarin in local education centers like in Jakarta and other large cities is continuing to rise.

Currently, the 10 countries most-favored by Indonesians to further their education are Australia, United States, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Singapore and China. (Source- globalindonesianvoives.com)

Related link:

1. Overview of Study Abroad in China

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1. Indonesian universities: A crisis without end?
2. For Indonesian higher education, it's time to grow up