Just recently, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Indonesian Directorate General of Higher Education and the Dutch embassy in Jakarta, concerning cooperation in the area of higher education for human resources development.

The MoU builds upon various existing cooperation agreements in the field of higher education.

Important agreement
During the event, Mr Fasli Jalal, Director General for Higher Education, stated: “This agreement is important for enhancing the quality of higher education for human resources development in Indonesia through exchange of knowledge, experience and means between the Republic of Indonesia and the Netherlands.”

StuNed Scholarship Program
The main instrument for capacity development in Indonesia is the StuNed Scholarship Program, which is financed by the government of the Netherlands and executed by the Netherlands Education Support Office (Neso) Indonesia in Jakarta. The StuNed Scholarship Program is specifically designed for enhancing the professional knowledge and competencies of university and development staff of the government, the private sector and education institutes in Indonesia.

Budget
The available budget for the StuNed scholarship programme amounts to approximately € 5.5 million per year and was topped up with another € 1.2 million for 2008. Under this amount approximately 200 Indonesian students benefit yearly for post doctorate studies in the Netherlands to improve their professional knowledge and skills.

Importance of Neso Indonesia
In the MoU, the role of Neso Indonesia as representative of the Dutch higher education institutions is clearly acknowledged. In his speech, Dr Nikolaos van Dam, the Dutch ambassador stressed the importance of Neso Indonesia: “Neso Indonesia not only supports Indonesian students who are interested in studying in the Netherlands. Neso Indonesia is also entrusted with the generic promotion of Dutch education, facilitating Dutch-Indonesian institutional cooperation and providing information about the Indonesian higher education system to Dutch institutions and vice versa. These tasks are in very good hands, because Neso has a lot of experience in fostering cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands in the field of higher education.”