INDONESIA: Dispute over foreign students

An inter-ministerial battle has broken out over the number of foreign students taking up places in the country's university medical faculties. The row involves the Ministry of National Education and the Heath Ministry with the Health Minister claiming the number of foreign medical students disadvantages Indonesians.

Siti Fadilah Supari is no stranger to controversy as it was she who refused to participate in international research into the H5N1 bird flu virus by blocking the release of tissue from Indonesian virus fatalities. She claimed at the time that the only beneficiaries would the big pharmaceutical firms.

In her latest intervention, Supari claimed the number of foreign medical students was disadvantageous to Indonesians. She has urged universities admitting foreign students to review their policies so more places are available for local would-be medics.

A spokeswoman for the minister asked the media, "Why are our lecturers so enthusiastic about teaching foreigners while Indonesia is still in desperate need of doctors?"

Critics say that this is something of a red herring because one of the major factors restricting the number of Indonesian medical students is the cost of admission. Equally, completing the courses is prohibitively expensive.

The spokeswoman, Lily Sulistyowati, said: "The minister is concerned that foreign students will outnumber Indonesian students."

But, the Education Ministry noted that only 13 of the 60 medical faculties at some 2,800 state and private universities accepted foreign students. The majority of these were from neighbouring Malaysia.

The pro-active Director-General for Higher Education, Fasli Jalal, who has been noted here several times, said the Education Ministry limited foreigners to 10% of placements and that no university had broken the rule. Jalal stressed that foreign students paid 10 times as much as their Indonesian counterparts and that the income thus generated could be used for the benefit of the locals.

In fact, it is difficult to see how Indonesian medical faculties would draw in large numbers of medical students anyway, as the local medical schools do not enjoy a strong reputation abroad. Still, Supari is likely to be unrepentant.