Indonesia, Thailand ink first ever student exchange deal

The Jakarta Post  |  Sat, 02/21/2009 5:10 PM  

Indonesia and Thailand have signed an agreement for an exchange student program to commencer this year, the first cooperation of its kind between the two countries, an official said. 

Director General for Higher Education Fasli Djalal said Saturday that Indonesia is set to host 28 students from Thailand who would take courses in Indonesian, cultural studies and technology. 

Higher education institutions that will host the students include Gajah Mada University, the University of Indonesia, the Bandung Institute of Technology, the Indonesian Education University, Hasanuddin University, Lambung Mangkurat University, the Surabaya Institute of Technology, Bina Nusantara University, Pancasila University, Muhammadiyah University and Petra University. 

In exchange, Indonesia will send nine post graduate students to Thailand to study international trade, tourism and hospitality. 

“We will only send a few because this is the first time we have had an exchange cooperation program with Thailand,” Fasli said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. 

Fasli said he and Thailand’s Secretary-General of the Commission on Higher Education Sumate Yamnoon signed the agreement two days ago. (and)