An Impact of the Japanese Government's Foreign Student Support Policy toward Indonesia: From the perspective of human resources development
2002 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages 201-219
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2002 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages 201-219
The goal of the Japanese Government's Foreign Student Support Policy can be divided into two perspectives: 1) to contribute to the human resources development in recipient countries, 2) to deepen mutual understanding and friendship with those countries by fostering pro-Japanese people. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate its impact toward Indonesia from the first perspective.
A total of 6,630 Indonesians studied in Japan from 1933 to 2000: Japanese government sponsored students (36.0%), Indonesian Government sponsored students (28.5%), and private or no scholarship students (31.9%). As the result of name list analysis of alumni who were sponsored either by the Japanese or the Indonesian government, it became clear that those who were dispatched before 1965 took important posts in the government or private sector during the time when the higher education opportunities were less available; after 1966 when the Japanese government restarted providing scholarships, scholarship recipients mostly became academic staff of university or government officers. Their majors were mainly science, technology and agriculture.
In the comparative questionnaire survey, both Japanese and USA alumni utilize and disseminate knowledge and skill they acquired abroad in their working place in spite of insufficient budget and facility. Japanese alumni showed more eagerness to introduce a Japanese style of discipline than USA alumni; this Japanese discipline seems to have strengthened the centripetal force of each organization and raised the evaluation of Japanese alumni.
Although the number of Japanese alumni is much smaller than that of USA alumni, they have contributed to the development of Indonesia in much needed fields like science and technology. In this view, the Japanese government's foreign student support policy was successful in Indonesia. For a sustainable human resources development, it is necessary to consider measures to promote their networking and technical support.
