The Vice Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire, Stephen Marston, visited Indonesia in November 2019. His itinerary included visits to two of the recently established GITA Growth Hubs at Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) and Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (UAD) in Yogyakarta.
On the first day in Yogyakarta, Mr Marston visited UII’s Growth Hub Simpul Tumbuh and met with the University’s Rector, Vice Rector for Partnership and Entrepreneurship and other Growth Hub staff. The GITA project has helped UII develop new momentum in developing enterprise and incubation services which are now growing rapidly and are providing innovative entrepreneurship education and start-up support students around five thousand new students across different subject areas each year.
On the second day, Mr Marston visited UAD’s Growth Hub KUBI, where he met with UAD’s Vice-Rector for Co-operation and International Affairs, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and various staff from the Growth Hub. UAD are currently trialling the embedding of entrepreneurial learning outcomes in three faculties with pharmacy having already completed the process. The University owns a number of enterprises including a hospital, pharmacies and petrol stations. UAD’s decision to join the GITA project was driven by their aspiration to consolidate their previously fragmented activities into a coherent University wide programme.
Mr Marston’s visit to Indonesia included meetings with the Director of Tertiary Education, Science, Technology and Culture, BAPPENAS, the British Council and UK Embassy. The new Indonesian Government’s long-term development plan puts strong focus on economic development, upskilling, technical and vocational education and raising the quality of higher education. With Indonesia aiming to become a high-income country by 2036 and a growing middle class, improving human capital is critical to this agenda. Whilst many nationals have entrepreneurial propensity, there is often a need for developing soft skills to put ideas into practice.
The delivery of the national plan is complex and multi-dimensional because power is distributed between the national planning agency, national Ministries, and the various provinces and regions.
The GITA approach and the development of a national learning network provides an innovative and comprehensive solution for enhancing the entrepreneurial propensity of universities, for connecting them with relevant local, regional and national stakeholder and to inform policy making for Indonesia’s close to five thousand higher education institutions and over eight million students.