Students are chatting in the corridors of the Swiss German University (SGU), in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. It is currently housed in the German Centre, a glass administrative building for promoting German business in Indonesia.

The SGU was founded in 2000 and it is a joint project between Indonesia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Peter Pscheid, the rector, insists it is an Indonesian university: “We have an Indonesian university license. We are authorised to offer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. A BA takes four years, whereas a Master's usually lasts one-and-a-half to two years.”

From engineering to tourism

Although most of the students are Indonesian, some students come from Germany to take a semester there and experience Indonesia. The SGU offers courses in engineering, business, law, tourism management, IT and communications.

When the university was founded, there was a great trend on the part of European higher education establishments to develop projects in Southeast Asia.

This seems to have paid off with the development of exchange programmes, study periods and internships abroad and partnerships between universities and businesses.

Building bridges to the future

Pscheid says the SGU can make a crucial contribution to building bridges between Germany, Switzerland and Indonesia: “If we look at it from a political angle, these are the future opinion leaders. You can see that when people have been in Germany, they put a D on their cars, or the logo of a local football club. That creates links. Most of them here want to go to Germany when they’re finished."

For the young students, the fact that the degrees include time in Germany is an important factor, as well as the feeling of community among the thousand or so students.

“The one thing that really interested me is the internship programmes,” says Marsha. “Because I believe that practice makes perfect. Other universities do not offer two internships.”

“I wanted to study at a university that had international standards and to do an internship abroad, in Germany,” says Krizia. “Also, I think that SGU has good discipline."

Whilst Chacha is happy because the fact that the university is small means there is “togetherness” between the students and the lecturers.

The university may be small but it is expanding. Before the end of the year, the SGU plans to move to new premises on the outskirts of Jakarta. It hopes to attract even more students to the greener and more spacious campus.

Author: Bernd Musch-Borowska/Anne Thomas
Editor: Disha Uppal