UNE provides Indonesian courses to collaborating campus

March 18, 2008

The University of New England, which already provides course material and tuition to students of German, French, Chinese and Italian at several other universities, has now added Indonesian to the list.

UNE began providing Indonesian to the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) earlier this month – an arrangement that follows the signing of a collaborative agreement last year.

Using the "UNE Blended Model", developed in 2004 by Associate Professor Kerry Dunne together with Professor Michael Macklin (who was Dean of Arts at the time), UNE began delivering German courses to the University of Newcastle in 2005. The success of this venture led to collaboration with James Cook University in north Queensland - collaboration that now sees the provision of UNE courses in German, French, Chinese and Italian to that university. USQ is the first university to offer Indonesian through such an arrangement with UNE.

The collaborative arrangement means that UNE provides the course material, access to Web-based bulletin boards and online discussions, and a local tutor for face-to-face tuition of on-campus students. USQ for its part provides all the necessary facilities for the students and their tutor.

Dr Zifirdaus Adnan (pictured here), the Convener of Indonesian at UNE, said that USQ had opted to collaborate with UNE in this way when its one lecturer in Indonesian was about to retire at the end of last year. As part of the planning process, he said, the Associate Dean (Academic) of USQ's Faculty of Arts, Dr Rhod McNeill, had visited UNE for discussions with himself, Dr Dunne (now Transitional Head of UNE's School of Arts) and other UNE staff members. "Such arrangements allow the provision of courses that – considering the relatively small numbers of students – might not otherwise be viable," he said.

UNE, with two full-time lecturers and around 70 students, is one of Australia's major providers of Indonesian language qualifications at tertiary level. Dr Adnan said that, while there had been a general decline in the number of Australian students studying Indonesian over the past 10 years, he felt confident that the current strengthening of existing relationships – and the development of new relationships, e.g. the Lombok Treaty – between Australia and Indonesia would lead to increasing levels of collaboration in industry, security and other fields.

"To assist this process, and to take advantage of an increasing number of opportunities, we need graduates with an understanding of Indonesian language and culture," he said. "As the biggest pair of close neighbours in the region, Australia and Indonesia have a lot to offer each other for their mutual benefit. For example, a large number of Australians visit Indonesia every year, and thousands decide to live there. And many Indonesians study in Australia as fee-paying students. (In 2006 the official figure was 1,500.)"

Dr Adnan was preparing for an online oral discussion with USQ students that very evening. He and his UNE colleague Stephen Miller hold such discussions regularly with the students. "We're keen to hold them at a time that fits in to the students' busy schedules," Dr Adnan said, "so we have them at 7 pm in the evening. They combine 'pastoral care' with information, and are also an opportunity for students to meet each other, practise their Indonesian, and share ideas and experiences online."

THE PHOTOGRAPH OF Dr Adnan displayed here expands to include Dr Rhod McNeill (USQ) and Associate Professor Kerry Dunne (UNE).

Posted by Jim Scanlan at March 18, 2008 05:37 PM