BENCHMARKING VISITS TO HEIS FOR INDONESIA’S HELM PROJECT

SEAMEO INNOTECH facilitated a study visit program in the Philippines and Thailand for a team of Indonesian university officials. The visits, which meant to showcase exemplar programs of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the two countries, were part of the Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM) Project of the Government of Indonesia.

The Philippine component included benchmarking visits to three universities—two campuses of the University of the Philippines (Diliman and Los Baños), De La Salle University, and the Mapua Institute of Technology. The Thailand component, on the other hand, included visits to Mahidol University, King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi, and Chulalongkorn University.

Learning sessions were integrated in each of the visits, which allowed the Indonesian university officials to gain more in-depth knowledge and understanding of the Thai and Philippine higher education (HE) systems.

The visit cum workshop, both in the Philippines and in Thailand, were key aspects in the capacity development of the Indonesian academic administrators to enable them to develop and implement quality programs, research and services for their higher education sector.

HELM is a five-year USAID-funded project that aims to improve the capacities of targeted HEIs in Indonesia, as well as the implementing arm of its Ministry of Education and Culture—the Directorate General of Higher Education, to lead in instituting reforms in the HE sector.