LDE-FISIP UI Joint Minor Batch 3
Commencing the third year of the LDE-UI Joint Minor program marks a stronger presence of LDE Centre in Indonesia in education. This fall semester, Universitas Indonesia will be hosting 25 LDE students to study with 15 Indonesian students. Evi Fitriani, Dean of FISIP opened the programme late August and highlighted the importance and prestigious educational partnership, which is expected to contribute ideas in tackling various sustainability challenges.
This year, it consists of students from 11 different nationalities which is valuable for Indonesian students to get the exposure of internationaliation at home, without spending more money. As in previous cohorts, the program offers interdisciplinary perspectives to address various societal challenges. It brings together lecturers from the Netherlands and Indonesia from multiple disciplines from social sciences, humanities, and engineering.
The program is enriched by weekly discussions among students with eleven different nationalities, to exchange knowledge and share the possible solutions based on observations in their home countries and own study backgrounds. This diverse discipline, from social studies such as anthropology, international relations, business administration, governance and economics, as well as from STEM majors such as architecture, computer science, civil and mechanical engineering will depeen their skills in working with people from various backgrounds.
The programme has sought to improve its delivery by doubling the language sessions for LDE students to address the language barrier and the topics are more focused on preparing them conducting fieldwork. Meanwhile the Indonesian students received introduction courses on the comparative studies between the Netherlands and Indonesia. The students visited the National Museum of Indonesia where they reflected on how the colonial heritage shape the future narratives of history in Indonesia. The students also had insightful discussions with Theodore Klouvas, newly appointed Counsellor for Science, Education, and Economics at the Netherlands Embassy in Indonesia. Klouvas and his team explained their roles in building diplomacy with many stakeholders in Indonesia and their projects on energy transition. The Netherlands Embassy has invited the students to conduct research on energy transition at the end of the program.
Although students are still struggling to understand the cultural difference in the first month of the program, a student from UI expresses that this program gives them amazing opportunity to be more open in sharing ideas and opinions with their European peers who can be very direct. Meanwhile, a mechanical engineering student from TU Delft describes the joint minor as an interactive program to brainstorm in addressing pressing issues in today’s world.