Indonesia's recently announced National Budget 2024 sees almost a 20 percent increase in 2024’s indicative budget for education amounting to IDR 660 trillion (GBP 33 billion), up from IDR 552 trillion (GBP 28 billion) in 2023. This accounts for close to 20 percent of the total 2024 National Indicative Budget (RAPBN) of IDR 3.304 trillion (GBP 169 billion) which will be directed towards improving infrastructure and the quality of schools, increasing scholarships, raising the quality of higher education institutions in Indonesia as well as strengthening research and innovation.

Source:

https://www.setneg.go.id/baca/index/pidato_presiden_ri_pada_penyampaian_keterangan_pemerintah_atas_ruu_tentang_apbn_tahun_anggaran_2024_beserta_nota_keuangannya_di_depan_rapat_paripurna_dpr_ri

What does this mean for the UK?

1. Mobility. Between 2017-2021, the UK received the largest number of Indonesian scholars studying overseas compared to other key host markets such as Australia, the Netherlands, US, Japan and Germany. In 2021/22, the UK even saw its market share of total overseas LPDP scholars rising to 32.7 percent from 27.6 percent in 2019/20 (pre-Covid) with the UK occupying pole position. The Government of Indonesia’s commitment to expand its scholarship offer to is positive news for the UK HE sector – it signals that the drop in scholarships by almost 40 percent in 2021/22 to 5,954 from 9,911 in 2019/2020, was a temporary decline due to the pandemic, and that more upside is in sight with the UK set to benefit from higher enrolment of LPDP students in the coming years.
2. Research. Budget 2024 will open up to increased opportunities for collaboration in the area of research – between 2015-2020 Indonesia’s research output was the largest in SE Asia, but the quality of research was the lowest by field-weighted citation impact. The Indonesian government is therefore keen that Indonesia HEIs work with international partners on priority research areas to boost their profile and contribute to the national development agenda. While the UK currently ranks only 5^th as Indonesia’s top international research partner, trailing that of other countries, the quality of its joint research is among the highest, making the UK an ideal partner for Indonesia.

3. Partnerships. With compulsory schooling now extended to include pre-school and with a portion of the education budget being used to improve the quality of pre-schools there will be an increase in demand for early childhood development degree and training courses as well as potential opportunities for the UK to offer skills and expertise in developing early childhood education in the country.

Recommendations

We see an increase in scholarships for PhD study including a recent call for expressions of interest to host doctoral training students from Indonesia (as published on our Opportunities and Insight portal). We recommend that UK HEI’s continue to invest in marketing and outreach programmes targeting PG students as Indonesia is still a PG market with a significant proportion of PG students being funded by government scholarships.

At the same time, UK HEI’s should also invest more in attracting UG students given that the UG market has grown significantly over the past few years. In 2019, 48 percent of Indonesian students in the UK were studying at UG level, up from 35 percent in 2015. The UK is also performing well as the most popular study destination under the IISMA (Indonesia International Students Mobility Award) programme, which provides scholarships for UG students to study for a semester at overseas universities, with 344 IISMA students commencing their studies in the UK in September 2023 compared to 316 last year. We recommend that UK HEIs take advantage of the growth momentum in the UG market and seek to partner with school counsellors and education agents with access to international schools in Greater Jakarta as well as other key cities in Java such as Surabaya and Bandung.

Note:

More statistics to the above can be found in the attached file below.

British Council Contact Details

Muhaimin Syamsuddin

Head of Education, Indonesia

muhaimin.syamsuddin@britishcouncil.org