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graphic that show the number of scholarship recipients from 2005 to 2011 can be seen
as follow.
Chart 2. The number of LPSDM scholarship recipients from 2005-2011
Source: http://www.lpsdm.acehprov.go.id/ [last assessed: April 10th, 2014]
Base on the new Governor Regulation No. 14 of 2011, dated May 13, 2011,
About the Institute for Improvement of Human Resources, IHRD Aceh has some
goals in order to assist the Governor in formulating policies to provide scholarships,
educational cooperation, research, and training to improve human resources Aceh.
Those goals are as follow;
1. Formulating policies to provide higher education scholarships
2. Cooperating with higher education institutions and research institutes at home and
abroad
3. Managing higher education scholarships and abroad
4. Managing educational assistance at home and abroad
5. Facilitating the provision of training to improve the quality of human resources
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6. Facilitating the financing of the implementation of the flagship research area
7. Facilitating the placement of those who have finished studying.
In addition, in accordance with the data that can be seen in IHRD website, here
are the numbers of Aceh students that study in Taiwan from 2007 until 2015;
Table 3. Number of Aceh students who study in Taiwan
Year Name of Program
Bachelor Master PhD
2007 2 7 3
2008 2 6 1
2009 22 5
Starting from this year, LPSDM has cooperated with ESIT
2010 31 2
Source: http://www.lpsdm.acehprov.go.id/ [last assessed: May 5th, 2015]
2.3.2 ESIT (Elite Study in Taiwan)
The Elite Study In Taiwan (ESIT) Program Office is commissioned by the
Ministry of Education and is located at Chung Yuan Christian University in Chungli,
Taoyuan, one of the cities in northern Taiwan. Its purpose is to provide necessary
services for the higher education cooperation that exists between Taiwan and
Southeast Asian countries as well as to create new opportunities. The Leader of ESIT
project is Dr. Wan-Lee Cheng, the former President of Chung Yuan Christian
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University. The Office Director and one of the Co-hosts is Dr. Po-Tsang Huang,
Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and System Engineering, the other
Co-host is Dr. Yung Tsan Jou, of Chung Yuan Christian University Department of
Industrial and System Engineering.
The Elite Study In Taiwan Office, Ministry of Education has brought together 57
of Taiwan's universities and colleges to form the ESIT Consortium, members of which
will offer English-language master's and doctorate programs in various fields (ESIT,
2009). Part of its role will be to provide a bridge between the students of Southeast
Asian countries and the ESIT Consortium schools and allow more students who hope
to come to Taiwan to study to learn more about Taiwan's high-quality higher
education system.
In order to promote higher education cooperation between Taiwan and Southeast
Asian countries and further the objective of training international professionals, the
Elite Study In Taiwan office has created a program for mutual development for
Southeast Asia. For instance, under the agreement with Vietnam, there are currently
four major programs aimed at training professionals. Of these in the north of Vietnam
there is the VEST 500; in the central Da Nang area there is a program designed to
select certain candidates for study abroad; in the far south, there is the Mekong 1000
Project (ESIT, 2009). There is also a program designed to assist the Indonesian
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Government with public funded students who will be sent to Taiwan for education
purposes as well as a project aimed at supporting the Aceh Provincial Government
with training professionals. Taiwan and the Singapore government also have an
agreement to send state-funded students to Taiwan to study bachelor's degrees.
Furthermore, Taiwan and Thailand have the Elite 600 Project; and in addition to these,
the ESIT Office is also currently moving forward with other areas of cooperation with
Southeast Asian countries.
2.3.3 IHRD – ESIT Educational Cooperation
Starting from 2010, the Government of Aceh has agreed to work together with
Taiwan Ministry of Education. In this case, IHRD will cooperate with ESIT. In
addition, there is also another meeting set up in June 2013, the newly elected Vice
Governor of Aceh and the representative of ESIT signed cooperation in education in
Chung Li City, where the office of ESIT is located (Syarif, 2013). This collaboration
is getting more intense when 16 universities from Taiwan attended The Taiwan Higher
Education Fair in Aceh on October 2013 (Dinamika, 2013).
ESIT is an institution under the Ministry of Education of Taiwan whose aims to
provide services for the higher education cooperation between Taiwan and Southeast
Asian countries. The responsibilities of ESIT are to assist IHRD with the initial
interviews with the scholarship recipient candidates before their coming to Taiwan,
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link the students and university with the IHRD, support students to apply ARC, and
assist IHRD distributing the scholarship expenses to students in Taiwan (ESIT, 2009).
IHRD fully covers all the expenditure of the selected students. It includes
tuition/credit fee, living expenses, housing expenses, health insurance, international
airfare, and book allowance. This becomes a great opportunity for the students of
Aceh who want to continue their higher degree in Taiwan.
For a start, Aceh Province will select 75 publicly sponsored students to study for
master and doctoral degrees in Taiwan. Taiwan Minister of Education, Wu Ching-ji,
also emphasize that at the beginning of 2011, 50 students will be selected every year
to study in Taiwan (Taiwan, 2013). Wu also stated that Aceh Government would sign
a memorandum of understanding with the Elite Study in Taiwan Program Office to
help ensure that the Aceh scholarships are delivered to the students in Taiwan. In the
future, Taiwan will send two or three Mandarin teachers to Aceh province to help
prepare the students who have been chosen to study in Taiwan to give them a
preparation in studying Mandarin, for instance, the government of Taiwan will pay
their salaries, while the government of Aceh will provide accommodation for them.
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Data Collection of Interview Section
This chapter will provide the results of interview and questionnaire survey. Both
these transcripts were to obtain the primary data regarding cooperation between IHRD
and ESIT in term of higher education scholarship program. The findings of these
surveys have successfully served the purpose of this research.
To begin with, the author had conducted an interview with one of IHRD
coordinators, Johnny Lee. Johnny is the coordinator for Taiwan and Thailand at
Institute for Human Research Development, the Government of Aceh and has been
working there for almost three years. This interview was conducted via emails, and all
of the questions are answered on May 6th, 2015. In addition, the author also
conducted a survey towards Aceh students who are currently studying in Taiwan to
know more about the advantages and the weaknesses of this higher education
scholarship program from the students’ point of view. Shortly, it is expected this also
can be as an evaluation to IHRD for their better management.
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3.1.1 Justification of Interview Questions
The questions asked during this interview mostly explain the main reason of why
the Government of Aceh decided to cooperate with ESIT in this scholarship program.
The eleven questions developed were divided into two groups related to main topics
chosen and research questions. The first five questions of the interview follow the first
research question: How this scholarship program can tighten the bilateral relations
between Aceh and Taiwan, especially regarding educational cooperation?
1. When did the cooperation between The Government of Aceh and ESIT in
term of higher education start?
2. What are the objectives of this cooperation?
3. Why did The Government of Aceh decide to cooperate with ESIT?
4. What are advantages the government of Aceh got after this cooperation?
5. After the agreement between IHRD and ESIT was signed, what are the
noticeable differences? If there are the changes, what are they?
The next six questions corresponded to the second research question: How
effective this scholarship program and how to measure whether or not this program is
successful?
6. How important is language and culture training to the students before leaving
to Taiwan?
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7. How does IHRD measure of the effectiveness of this program?
8. How many of students who currently studying in Taiwan? And how many of
them who had already graduated? How many of them who failed?
9. Do the entire alumnus return to Aceh after they graduate? Is there any of
them who keep staying in Taiwan or any other countries?
10. What are their contributions to Aceh after graduated from university and
returned home?
11. Have IHRD ever held an evaluation regarding this scholarship program
trough asking the alumnus critiques and suggestions?
3.1.2 Interview Transcription
1. When did the cooperation between The Government of Aceh and ESIT in term of
higher education start?
The cooperation between the IHRD and ESIT started on 2010.
2. What are the objectives of this cooperation?
The objectives of this cooperation are to tighten the relations with Taiwan and also to
ask for help from ESIT to assist some things regarding the administrative things that
have to be done before and after the scholarship recipient in Taiwan.
3. Why did The Government of Aceh decide to cooperate with ESIT?
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It is because ESIT is an institution that is commissioned by the Ministry of Education
in Taiwan. The main objective of ESIT is to provide necessary services for the higher
education cooperation that exists between Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries, one
of them in Indonesia. That is why IHRD believes that it is a good decision to work
together with ESIT.
4. What are advantages the government of Aceh got after this cooperation?
This cooperation brings a lot of advantages to IHRD. ESIT helps us in so many ways,
for instance, to assist with the initial interviews with the scholarship recipient
candidates prior to their coming to Taiwan, to link the students and university with the
IHRD (since there will be a language barrier), to assist students in administrative
things while in Taiwan, such as applying ARC, and also to help IHRD distributing the
scholarship expenses to students in Taiwan.
5. After the agreement between IHRD and ESIT was signed, what are the noticeable
differences? If there are the changes, what are they?
It will be easier for IHRD to control the study situation of the students in Taiwan.
ESIT becomes as a bridge to facilitate between IHRD and the university. For instance,
before this agreement was signed, in 2009 there is a student who runaway with
the-one-year scholarship fund. He was selected as one of scholarship recipients in
Taiwan, but after he got the-one-year scholarship fund, he didn’t fly to, instead he
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took all the money to start a business. At that time IHRD directly cashed the-one-year
scholarship fund to the students’ hand for all the expenses, including tuition fee,
credit, dorm fee, and living cost fee. That was our biggest mistake in managing this
scholarship program. We had lacked of control toward students who were already
arrived in Taiwan. We hope after signing the agreement cooperation with ESIT, this
will not happen again in the future.
6. How important is language and culture training to the students before leaving to
Taiwan?
It is very important. We will give them 6 months training in Aceh prior to their
departure to Taiwan. This training includes learning basic Chinese mandarin and
introduction to Taiwan situation in order help the students know Taiwan well, so that
after arriving in Taiwan they will not that shock. Of course they will face a culture
shock, but we hope they can easily adjust to live there.
7. How does IHRD measure of the effectiveness of this program?
For now, the effectiveness of this program can be measured by how many of them
successfully graduate and get the degree then get a job.
8. How many of students who are currently studying in Taiwan? And how many of
them who had already graduated? How many of them who failed?
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There are around 180 students who are currently studying in Taiwan under IHRD
scholarship program. The total of alumnus is now about 103 people. Until now there
are about 5% of them who failed get the degree.
9. Do the entire alumnus return to Aceh after they graduate? Is there any of them
who keep staying in Taiwan or any other countries?
It is varying. Most of them return to Aceh and work in Aceh after they graduated.
Some of them continue their study either in Taiwan or another country. And a few of
them work in Taiwan or other countries.
10. What are their contributions to Aceh after graduated from university and returned
home?
This is an interesting question. Like I said before, most of them directly returned to
Aceh after finishing their study in Taiwan. Holding a master/PhD diploma certificate
make it easier for them to be accepted as a lecture either in public or private
university, since Aceh has less number of lectures. This can be one of their
contributions, by becoming a lecture they can transfer their knowledge to their
students. Also, they can become an inspiration for other students to also study. On the
other hand, those who are now working abroad can be called to return Aceh later if
we need their help in developing this province. Prior to their departing to Taiwan,
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every scholarship recipient would signed the contract stated that they will dedicate
their knowledge for the development of this province.
11. How IHRD respond to the critiques and suggestions from scholarship recipient?
Has IHRD ever held an evaluation regarding this scholarship program trough
asking the alumnus critiques and suggestions?
Unfortunately, we have never held an evaluation or public hearing together with the
scholarship recipients. This can be a good input. I mention about this evaluation to
my program director. Actually, I got many critiques, suggestions, and even
complaints from the students through emails. I will deliver all of their complaints to
the program director and head of IHRD on our monthly meeting. We will do our best
to help them to solve their problem while studying in Taiwan.
3.2 Data Collection of Questionnaire Section
3.2.1 Respondent’s Background
The targets of this questionnaire are Acehnese students who are currently
studying in Taiwan. They will be asked several questions in regarding this higher
education scholarship program conducted by IHRD. The questionnaire was spread on
the Ranub Lampuan facebook group. Ranup Lampuan is an Aceh Student Association
in Taiwan (ASAT). This Association consists of Acehnese students who are studying
in different cities in Taiwan. The main goal of this questionnaire is to get some
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feedbacks from the scholarship recipients, since IHRD has never held a formal
evaluation meeting together with the students regarding their scholarship program. In
other hand, this can be a tool to deliver the students’ point of view to the IHRD. It is,
thus, expected that this research will become an input to the Government of Aceh.
The questions asked were related to the respondents’ personal data, in regarding
their scholarship, study, living situation, and adjusting in living in Taiwan. Besides,
the several questions regarding their future plan and input to IHRD were also asked to
relate this questionnaire questions to the last research question: How this scholarship
program will bring beneficial impacts towards educational development of Aceh? The
author has provided the complete questionnaire questions at the end of this research,
appendix I.
3.2.2 Questionnaire Result Findings
In this section, the author would like to break down the correspondents’ answer
based on the spread questionnaire above. It can be seen clearly that there are seven
groups questions have been asked to the correspondents. The first group of question
the author would like to describe is about correspondent personal data. From the data,
that has been successfully collected, and it is shown that most of the correspondents
were female and the percentage is 60%, while the male is 40%. The chart of the age
distribution can be seen as follow.