**7. The challenges facing university internationalization in Indonesia**

While Indonesia is a member of ASEAN, there is very limited engagement by Indonesian universities within the region. While many students from Indonesia study abroad, there are few international students within Indonesia. The literature identifies the following challenges for Indonesia that must be addressed if internationalization is to be developed across the HE sectors. There is a lack of coordination and integration across the HE sectors and between key stakeholders in the system. Challenges include improving coordination between the national and provincial government; and between HE institutions, government, and employers [19]. There has also been an absence of a national program to support internationalization, although internationalization is proclaimed as a goal of the HE sector. Although the government has recently announced policies to encourage overseas universities to establish campuses in Indonesia and encourage short-term appointments of academics from overseas universities, there has been limited progress toward realizing these objectives [40]. Institutional conditions, including history, have not supported internationalization. Dutch colonial occupation established a rudimentary education system linked to Colonial ambitions [43]. The current university system meets national and provincial objectives and all the conditions that support internationalization (staffing, students, curriculum, research, reputation) are lacking across the HE system. International campuses are absent, international students are absent, visiting international scholars are absent, and participation in international research projects is minimal. On curriculum and quality of staff and programs, Usoh [9] and Wicaksono and Friawan [44] identified factors impacting quality and the potential for internationalization. These conditions included less government spending on education as compared to countries in the region: the low rates of graduate post-graduate qualifications of Indonesian teaching and lecturing staff; low salaries across the sector; and poor governance of public educational institutions*.*

Compared to neighbors such as Malaysia, Indonesia has failed to internationalize the HE sector. Malaysia had a national plan supporting internationalization of the sector that included attracting overseas universities, developing international partnerships, establishing university corridor hubs such as the Kuala Lumpur Education City, attracting international staff and international students, and investing in joint industry/university research hubs and facilities [45]. As a result, there are over 100 thousand international students per year and there is an international university presence by universities from North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand [45].

### *Challenges and Opportunities to Internationalize the Indonesian Higher Education Sector DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110658*

Since 2009 Indonesia's allocated fund for education is 20% of the state budget. However, Indonesian higher education has limited collaboration with private companies, which could invest in education and possibly contribute toward developing a professional and skilled workforce [46–48]. In terms of research, the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (now Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology) admits that Indonesia has a shortage of active researchers and has the insufficient infrastructure to support science and technology developments and research. It is suggested that given its population size that Indonesia needs 200,000 researchers to support research and development, and research training, there are only 24,000 researchers [47, 49].

University internationalization is slowly emerging in Indonesia when compared to developed countries and with comparable countries in the region such as Malaysia, which have developed an internationalization process in staffing, students, research, and teaching over many decades. State regulations for establishing an International Office in universities were only initiated in 2007. Kyrychenko [47] identifies several barriers to internationalization that include an absence of institutional autonomy and extensive bureaucratic controls and underqualified staff. A further challenge to employability, research development, and internationalization is the lack of English competency across staff and students [18]. Indonesia has low levels of English proficiency as compared to neighboring ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The application of English as a medium of instruction and research is one of the critical elements for the internationalization of higher education.

Surisno [40] suggested that the barriers to internationalization are systemic and permeate throughout the Indonesia HE system which included the absence of a national unified and extensive policy program to support internationalization, while the government has proclaimed the desire to establish world-class universities in Indonesia, the details and the processes for achieving this goal have not been articulated. At the level of individual universities, Surisno [40] suggested that entrenched and rigid institutional arrangements inhibit innovation, including internationalization, and that university leaders lack the skills or track record to manage innovative programs, including internationalization.
