Four universities pool Indonesian resources

July 02, 2007

The University of New England is at the centre of a government-funded initiative that is enhancing the teaching and learning of Indonesian at UNE itself and at several other Australian universities.

UNE houses the Project Office for the Regional Universities' Indonesian Language Initiative (RUILI), which has received funding of $369,000 from the Australian Government.

UNE is collaborating with the University of the Sunshine Coast, the University of Tasmania and Charles Darwin University to develop and deliver Indonesian language programs that combine the resources of all four universities. In a higher-education environment that has seen – over the past 10 years – a decline in the demand for Indonesian by Australian students, the initiative is designed to enrich current programs by pooling the resources of each of the four participants.

The Project Officer, UNE's Dorothy Meyer, said the collaboration had brought together the four Indonesian departments (comprising two academics at UNE, three at the University of Tasmania, and one each at the University of the Sunshine Coast and Charles Darwin University) to develop new, unified Indonesian programs that would be offered by all four universities. This involves the development of a common curriculum – including advanced units that can draw on the specialisations of any of the seven academics. (Some of these units are already being offered.) "In this way, students will have access to a wider range of expertise," Ms Meyer said.

"We're not only coordinating curriculum development across our several campuses," she added, "but setting up an 'open' Web site that will enable Indonesian-teaching universities anywhere in the world to contribute to this collaborative development of teaching materials."

Stephen Miller, a UNE Indonesian lecturer who is Project Coordinator for RUILI, said the collaboration would also involve a common "in-country" program, giving students a first-hand experience of Indonesian language and culture. Mr Miller said he had already served – earlier this year – as Resident Director of an "in-country" program based on the Indonesian island of Lombok, and that this program would be integrated into the shared curriculum. "Bringing students from the four universities together for the 'in-country' program will help to build a sense of community among the RUILI participants," he said. (THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show students from UNE, Charles Darwin University and the University of the Sunshine Coast during the in-country program in Lombok earlier this year. Mr Miller is in the back row, second from left.)

"It's a real advantage for me, as an early-career academic, to be working so closely with Indonesian lecturers with decades of experience in the field – including a Professor and an Associate Professor," Mr Miller said. He also pointed out that the inter-university collaboration would make study leave – an essential part of any academic's professional development – more feasible for members of the four Indonesian departments involved, two of which have just a single lecturer.

UNE has already established a name for itself as a leader in the provision of language courses to universities unable themselves to maintain programs in those languages. Through the "UNE Blended Model" of language provision, students at other universities follow the same program (course materials, assignment, exams, etc.) as UNE students – doing much of their work online – and get face-to-face tuition from local tutors. Mr Miller said there was scope within the RUILI project for the delivery of the new, collaborative Indonesian programs – following the "UNE Blended Model" – to universities other than the four participants. "Several universities, in Australia and New Zealand, are interested in this prospect," he said.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at July 2, 2007 11:42 AM