Agreement to build better NZ/Indonesian relations

MEDIA RELEASE

20 July 2007

Agreement to build better New Zealand/Indonesian relations

An agreement signed between the University and Indonesia's State Islamic University in Jakarta is a significant step towards greater bilateral relations applauded by Prime Minster Helen Clark.

Signed by the Victoria Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) Professor Rob Rabel and Dr Komarudin Hidayat, Rector of the State University, the agreement will see the arrival of an Indonesian academic to the School of Government early next year.

At the signing Miss Clark said the teaching fellowship, supported by Victoria and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, will contribute to the building of stronger links with the nations and peoples of Asia. She highlighted education as a growth area alongside budding trade negotiations, and says New Zealand could significantly boost the number of international tertiary students from Indonesia.

School of Government lecturer Associate Professor Jim Veitch says the agreement illustrates the University's role "at the forefront of brokering new relationships between the two countries."

"These types of education contacts have been critical in the absence of historical business and trade connections between New Zealand and Indonesia.

"Victoria is co-operating with one of the best universities in Indonesia – the State Islamic University is a very classy university with an excellent reputation for research," Dr Veitch says.

In a mutually beneficial arrangement, Victoria staff and students in the Master of Public Policy, Master of Public Management and Master of Strategic Studies programmes will learn about economics from a Muslim perspective, and the visiting lecturer will gain insights invaluable to the Indonesian university as they look to establish a school of government.

Dr Veitch anticipates the visiting lectureship will also be of particular interest to Asian and religious studies programmes in the University's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

In a second arrangement with an Indonesian university, the School of Government is overseeing an NZAid-sponsored lectureship at Gadjah Mada University (GMU) in Yogyakarta. Former Otago University academic Dr Simon Rae will take up a position at GMU's Centre for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies in an agreement Dr Veitch says will pioneer connections between Victoria and GMU. Dr Rae will help shape a unique intra-religious PhD programme that is supported by the country's State, Christian, Islamic, and Catholic universities.

ENDS

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