JAKARTA (Indonesia), Oct 13 (NNN-KBC) — The Islamic University of Kenya (IUK) and Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah (UIN) Jakarta signed an agreement for student exchange and research.
The agreement was signed on Thursday 10th October 2024 at UIN, Jakarta.
The MoU, which was signed by IUK Vice Chancellor Prof. Ali Said Sunkar and UIN’s Rector Prof. Asep Jahar, will enable student and faculty exchange between the two institutions as well as the development of joint programmes and curriculum.
Additionally, the two universities will work together to conduct research, publish scientific publications and host seminars and conferences on a range of scholarly disciplines.
The signing was witnessed by Kenya’s representative to Indonesia, Ambassador Galma Boru and Indonesia’s Ambassador to Kenya Dr. Mohamad Hery Saripudin.
“In the last one and a half years, we have seen about 100 students come to Indonesia for higher education. There are currently some working here with international organizations like the United Nations and others as teachers and businesspeople,” said Ambassador Boru. “Our current focus is to grow the population of students to at least 1,000 in the next two years.”
According to various scholars who made presentations during the occasion, it is expected that deepening educational cooperation between Kenya and Indonesia will result in generation of new knowledge and innovation thus boosting diplomatic and cultural ties between the two countries.
“We hope that this agreement will further enhance people to people relations between Kenya and Indonesia by enabling research collaborations,” said Dewi Justicia Meidiwaty, Director for Africa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Indonesia who gave the keynote speech during the occasion which also commemorated 45 years of diplomatic ties between Kenya and Indonesia.
“With the inclusion of the African Union to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), such partnerships also provide an avenue for the wider East African Community to tap into the ASEAN region’s university networks.” — NNN-KBC
