Chapter 2: Historical Overview Of Indonesia – Taiwan Bilateral Relations
4.1 How this scholarship program can tighten the bilateral relations between
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4.1 How this scholarship program can tighten the bilateral relations between
Aceh and Taiwan, especially regarding educational cooperation?
In the previous chapter, the first five questions of the interview were determined
to focus on this issue. In accordance with the interviewee’s respond, the primary focus
why IHRD decided to cooperate with ESIT in this field is to maximize the
effectiveness of this scholarship. IHRD was established in 2005 and it, of course, had
several weaknesses in order to control and to get the actual information regarding
their all their scholarship recipients. The recipients of this scholarship were not only
to Taiwan, but also many other countries, such as Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, USA,
UK, and so on. Therefore, IHRD needs to work together with the third party in order
to run this program well. ESIT was chosen to be a partner with IHRD since it
provides necessary services for the higher education between Taiwan and Aceh.
The necessary services offered by ESIT are to assist with the initial interviews
with the scholarship recipient candidates prior to their coming to Taiwan. It is
believed that, this way will make the selection process for scholarship recipients
become more objective. It is because the judges are not only from IHRD officials but
also from ESIT officials. So that, in the end, both of officials from will decide
together who are deserved to receive this scholarship.
The second service offered is more into administrative things, for instance, to
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link the students and university with the IHRD. ESIT is willing to become a bridge for
both university and IHRD in order to pretend the language barrier that might happen.
Later on, the last service offered is to help IHRD distributing the scholarship expenses
to students in Taiwan. This means IHRD will transfer all the funds to ESIT account as
much as all expenses needed by students who are studying in Taiwan. And then, ESIT
will transfer the funds to the students’ account one by one accordingly. This may
sound a bit complicated, but IHRD does this in order to avoid the misuse of the
scholarship funds that was once happened before.
On the other hand, it is a good opportunity for Taiwan to promote their higher
educational degree. ESIT, an institution that is commissioned right under the Ministry
of Education in Taiwan, help to run one of the missions from the Government of
Taiwan in order to encourage outstanding international students to undertake degree
programs in Taiwan. It is written on the website of the Government of Taiwan that this
program has established since 2004.
After the agreement between IHRD and ESIT signed, there are a couple positive
activities held in order to tighten the bilateral relation between these two sides. IHRD
and ESIT have agreed to work together and with several universities from Aceh and
Taiwan to hold higher education fair and to have double degree program. It is so
showing that both IHRD and ESIT put a big concern toward this bilateral relation. It
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is also expected that, in the future years not only Acehnese who come to study in
Taiwan, but also the other way around.
4.1.1 Taiwan Higher Education Fair in Aceh
Starting from 2011, several universities from Taiwan, both public and private
universities, joined the Taiwan Higher Education Fair in Aceh. The fair is held
annually in Banda Aceh, the capital city of Aceh province. 16 Taiwanese universities
participated in this show. Two scholarship institutions and Chinese language center
took part to join this fair as well.
This exhibition can be held due to the cooperation IHRD Aceh with ESIT, a
non-structural institution under the Ministry of Education of the country. The aim of
this higher education fair is to promote the participated universities to students in
Aceh. For the participated universities, this can become one of the right moves to
promote their educational system to international students. This fair, which is open
for public, was held at two biggest universities in Banda Aceh, Syiah Kuala
University, and IAIN Ar Raniry University.
It is expected that this fair will give a greater opportunity for students who are
willing to continue their higher education in Taiwan since quite a few universities are
participating in higher education this exhibition and two scholarships institutions
under the government of Taiwan. Each of participated universities and scholarships
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institutions will be given one booth at the fair. Each booth has at least two
representatives from the university foreign office to explain the administrative system
of their universities. Therefore, students who are interested can consult directly on the
booths. The participants of Taiwan Higher Education Fair can be seen as follow;
Table 4. The list of participants of Taiwan Higher Education Fair Participants
No Public Universities Private Universities Others 1. National Central University Chaoyang University of
Technology
Taiwan Center Education
2. National Chiao Tung University
Chienkuo Technology University
Elite Study in Taiwan (Ministry of Education,
Taiwan) 3. National Chung Hsing
University
6. National Sun Yat-sen University
Taipei Medical University
7. National Taipei University of Nursing and Health
Sciences
Yuang Ze University
8. National Taiwan Ocean University
9. National Yunlin University of Science and Technology
Source: http://www.lpsdm.acehprov.go.id/ [last assessed: May 5th, 2015]
4.1.1 Double Degree Program
Cooperation between Aceh and Taiwan is also developed to double degree
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spend one or two semester to study in one of the universities in Taiwan. The double
degree is a program that allows a student to study for two different university degrees
in parallel, either at the same institution or at different institutions or sometimes in
different countries. The two degrees might be in the same subject area or in two
different subjects.
According to the Taymaz, despite the challenges that students might occur during
their time in doing the double degree, there are a couple of advantages they can get
such as, double network and double hard work (Taymaz, 2016).
Firstly, students will be able to see different types of study environments,
teaching and learning styles in two different programs. Moreover, students have a
chance to get in contact with academicians, students, and professionals in both
programs. After finishing their study, the increase of the connections will help them
both during and after education. Especially if they are holding a degree in different
countries, by meeting more students, they will get to know different cultures closely,
learn the local customs and be a member of that community by joining the traditional
activities.
Another advantage of double degree is, of course, double hard work. There will
be challenges ahead. The double degree also means doubling the workload and
studies in order to successfully complete the two programs. Additionally, a difference
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in education systems may be hard to adapt and may bring students hard times but this
will help them to learn how to deal with difficulties and become accustomed to an
entirely new environment. By completing the double degree program, students can
expand their knowledge and experience; it is definitely a great way to complete a
study. Moreover, the benefits of a degree will still continue after the graduation.
Companies are more likely willing approach warmly to students who have completed
the double degree studies.
Base on those advantages explain above, the Government of Aceh has made a
couple of agreements with universities in Taiwan, in order to allow students from
Aceh to take a double degree in Taiwan. According to the IHRD former coordinator,
Dr. Bukhari Daud, ESIT also plays a significant role to help the Government of Aceh
to link universities that are under its consortium. In addition, ESIT is also a partner
that bridges the Government of Aceh with a broad range of higher education
institutions in Taiwan. The list of universities in Taiwan that collaborate with Aceh
can be seen as follow:
Table 5. List of universities in Taiwan that has double degree program with Aceh
No
Name of University No. Name of University
1. Feng Chia University 28. Tamkang University 2. National Kaohsiung Univesity of
Applied Science
29. National University of Kaohsiung
3. National Chung Hsing University 30. National Changhua University of Education
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4. National Kaohsiung First University of Science and
Technology
31. National Taiwan Ocean University
5. National Cheng Kung University 32. National Chung Cheng University 6. National Sun Yat-Sen University 33. National Taiwan University 7. National Taiwan University of
Science and Technology
34. TungHai University
8. Soochow University 35. University of Taipei 9. National Central University 36. Chang Jung Christian University 10. Kaohsiung Medical University 37. National United University 11. National Yang-Ming University 38. Chang Gung University 12. National Yunlin University of
Science and Technology
39. Shih Chien University
13. I-Shou University 40. Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages
14. National Chiao Tung University 41. Lunghwa University of Science and Technology
15. National Taichung University of Education
42. Minghsin University of Science and Technology
16. National Pingtung University of Science and Technology
43. Providence University
17. Yuan Ze University 44. Meiho University
18. National Formosa University 45. National Taipei University 19. Kun Shan University 46. National Pingtung University 20. National Dong Hwa University 47. National Ilan University 21. Taipei Medical University 48. National Taiwan Sport University 22. National Taipei University of
Technology (Taipei Tech)
49. National Chengchi University
23. National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences
50. Shu-Te University
24. Chaoyang University of Technology
51. Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology 25. China Medical University 52. National Taipei University of
Education
26. Tatung University 53. National Taiwan Normal University
27. Dayeh University 54. Chung Yuan Christian University
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4.2 How effective this scholarship program and how to measure whether or not
this program is successful?
In this part, the author would like to interpret the second group of questions
responded by the interviewee. There were six questions in total. Since the beginning,
the author has set these six questions were determined to give some details regarding
this research question. In accordance with the interviewee’s respond, it is can
concluded that this scholarship program is quite effective. It plays a major role in
improving the education quality standard in Aceh. Through this scholarship, many
people become more interested in continuing their study through higher degree.
However, IHRD still has a couple of weaknesses to manage this scholarship program.
Therefore, in the following paragraphs, the author would like to break down more
regarding the successful measurement of this program and couple of suggestions to
IHRD on how to improve their work performance.
To begin with, there are three ways on how to evaluate whether or not this
scholarship program is successful. The first one is by sorting out how many of them
could finish the degree. Based on the interviewee’s respond, it is recorded than 95%
of the students can successfully graduate from the University. Meanwhile, only 5% of
them who are unfortunately can complete their education while in Taiwan. The
percentage of them who are able to get the degree from university is quite high. In
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addition, many of those students were enrolled in the top 10 universities in Taiwan,
such as National Cheng Kung University, National Chiao Tung University, National
Chengchi University, and any others. To get enrolled in one of those universities, one
has to compete with a number of other qualified applicants. For that reason, this may
become the parameter on how to measure the successful of this program.
The next way to measure the successful of this program is through keeping the
track record of the alumni. IHRD will still keep update to the alumni activity after
they graduate. In accordance with the interviewee’s respond, the alumni of Taiwan
chance to be a lecture in Aceh is getting higher and higher. There a couple of factors
why their chance to have a career in the field of education is quite high. Factor
number on is due to the lack of lecture or teacher in Aceh. Factor number two, it is
because they are more qualified compare to others. For instance, they have more
experience, they are more open-minded, they are more capable of speaking English,
and also the university is interested in their research topic. Moreover, the government
of Aceh is also interested in hiring these alumni to work as the government officials,
due to the lack of number of government officials in several places in Aceh.
On the other hand, there are several alumni who decided not to look for a job in
Aceh after receiving their degree from Taiwan. Instead, they are looking for an
opportunity to continue their degree into a higher level. Surprisingly, most of them are
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capable enough to become awardees on a national scale. This means that they are able
to compete with any other Indonesians. This is become a good news because before
that only a few of Acehnese can compete with other Indonesians to get this chance. In
short, it can be said that the alumni of Taiwan are competent enough in many ways
and this also become one of the parameters to measure the successful of this program.
The last way to measure this program is by looking at the people’s enthusiasm to
apply to this program. The number of participants who want to continue to study in
Taiwan is getting higher every year. It can be seen that the number of students from
Aceh who are studying in Taiwan is getting higher as well every year. In addition,
these students are voluntarily helping IHRD to promote this scholarship program to a
remote area, since they believe that everyone deserved to get a proper education. Thus,
the following section will describe kind of activities done in promoting this
scholarship program.
4.2.1 Aceh students in Taiwan promote Taiwan higher education
Base on the IHRD data, there about 180 students from Aceh who has pursued
their higher education in Taiwan (LPSDM, 2005). Since the number of Aceh students
in Taiwan is increasing every year, these students form an association, called Aceh
Students Association in Taiwan (ASAT), in order to unify all the students who are
studying in different cities in Taiwan. Even though this association is not a legal one,
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it has a structured organization. Mostly students communicate to each other through a
Facebook group.
In summer 2013, these ASAT initiated to share their experiences while studying
in Taiwan. They started to contact two universities in Banda Aceh, Unsyiah University,
and IAIA Ar Raniry University, to help them to do a socialization regarding their
experiences in Taiwan. This socialization was also one of their ways to encourage
students in Aceh to pursue their higher education in Taiwan.
Therefore, during the summer vacation in 2013 and 2014 several representatives
from ASAT from various departments delivered their experiences at the so-called
one-day seminar to students in Aceh Province. The discussion encompassed three
things, the educational system in Taiwan, the daily life in Taiwan, the type of
scholarship to study in Taiwan. In the end of the seminar, there was a question and
answer part, in order to respond participants’ issues. At that time, the seminar can only
be done in Banda Aceh. This activity is also supported and sponsored by ESIT. ESIT
provided some merchandises and universities brochures.
Due to the high number of enthusiastic Acehnese students who wanted to
continue their higher degree in Taiwan, ASAT decided to hold a bigger socialization in
2015. This time was not only conducted in Banda Aceh, but also in several cities in
Aceh Province. It means ASAT tried to cover more universities to encouraging
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students to study in Taiwan. The socialization was held during the summer vacation,
on August-September 2015. At this time, ESIT also joined ASAT to promote Taiwan
higher educational system by sending their representatives to Aceh, Dr. Huang, the
director of ESIT, and Li Pei-hua, project manager of ESIT. Hopefully, this activity can
make a positive change and encourage young people in Aceh to pursue their higher
education in Taiwan. The list of universities that were visited during summer holiday
on 2015 can be seen as follow:
Table 6. List of universities in Aceh that were visited on August - September 2015
No Name of University Name of the City
1. Syiah Kuala University Banda Aceh
2. UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh
3. Teuku Umar University Meulaboh
4. Malikussaleh University Lhokseumawe
5. Politeknik Aceh Banda Aceh
6. Politeknik Lhokseumawe Lhokseumawe
7. Serambi Mekah University Banda Aceh
8. Muhammdiyah Banda Aceh University Banda Aceh
9. Universitas Abulyatama Banda Aceh
10. Samudra University Langsa
11. Cot Kalla University East Of Aceh
12. Almuslim University Biruen
13. Jabal Ghafur University Pidie
14. Ubudiyah Aceh University Banda Aceh
Source: http://www.lpsdm.acehprov.go.id/ [last assessed: May 5th, 2015]
4.3 How this scholarship program will bring beneficial impacts towards
educational development of Aceh?
In this section the author would try to answer the last research question; that is
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the beneficial impacts of this scholarship program towards educational development
in Aceh province. The result of the spread questionnaire was determined to get exact
description regarding this part. There are a couple of beneficial impacts of this
program towards educational development of Aceh, namely short-term impact and
long-term impact.
To begin with, the short-term beneficial impact that directly can be seen is the
Government of Aceh help to its citizen to continue their education into a higher
degree. Since they believe that it is obvious education plays an important role in to
improve the personal development. Moreover, this scholarship program is not only
providing the chance for the awardees to continue their study up to a higher
educational degree, but also giving them the chance to experience to study overseas.
Since they can experience a better study environment overseas, it is expected that they
will use this chance to study hard.
In addition, in accordance with the questionnaire transcript, it can be said that
this scholarship program is one of the good programs the Government of Aceh in the
field education. Similarly, awardees also agree that this scholarship program is a good
decision from the Government of Aceh in order to improve the education quality in
their province. Despite some weaknesses found in the management to run this
program, still, this program has given chance to them to experience study overseas.
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The critiques and suggestions given from the awardees may become a useful input to
IHRD in evaluating their management program in order to run this program well and
avoid same mistakes made in the future.
The next one is regarding the long-term beneficial impact of this program to the
educational development of Aceh is the investment in education, especially of a
higher education degree. It is obvious that education can put people on a path towards
good health, empowerment, and employment as well as can help to build more
peaceful societies. Education paves the road to get better jobs and improve economic
lifestyles. Education does not only benefit for these students, but also for the province.
Inadequate education produces high costs for society in terms of public spending,
Inadequate education produces high costs for society in terms of public spending,