Spreading the Word or Meeting the Needs – Making Short Courses Work!

Developed countries, Germany and Australia as examples, are enhancing efforts to educate their future human resources abroad so to hone skills in managing the growing interconnectedness. International students power home and host economies – both in terms of revenue they generate and the intercultural experience they enrich with. So, all higher education institutions want international students. Indonesian institutions do too. And, the imperative of reciprocity principle is clear. Yet, it is not easy to recruit students to the developing world. BINUS UNIVERSITY, while an internationalization star among the private Indonesian universities, struggles just the same with its partners to encourage international students to study here. Our short course voyage is an excellent example of this struggle.

Organized at the request of partner schools as extensions of their core programs, architecture short courses our engineering school delivered first in cooperation with the Polytechnic University Milan and again later with Deakin University and the International Islamic University Malaysia brought Indonesia closer to many international participants. Similar histories have our Games Application & Technology short courses. We have organized two courses together with Deakin University offering BINUS and international counterparts the opportunity to come together and deepen their expertise in this popular field. This year in May, we have repeated this opportunity in a shortened workshop version in partnership with Coventry University titled Game Jam!.

Motivated by the participant numbers from these courses tailored to our partners’ teaching needs, we are now looking for ways to enhance enrollment in our short programs targeting wider audiences. Two-years ago, we organized a short course on international marketing with a guest lecture from the King’s College London, one of the top 20 schools in the world as ranked by QS. Marketed locally to BINUS and wider Jakarta audience with advertised scholarship for a follow up program at this prestigious university, we wish to have seen greater numbers apply. Currently, we are facing a similar situation with our summer course planned for August Embracing Business Opportunities in the ASEAN Region with an included internship track. Organized in partnership with Udayana University, the program should take place partly in Jakarta and partly in Bali, one of the world’s most famous tourist destinations.

We have tried different program constellations tapping into our strengths – internships, knowledge of the region, and excellent partners in attractive locations. Learning from experience that our partners recognize the value of student exposure to courses in Indonesia, our marketing approach targeted our partner network to search for departments where such programs would add value to students. We also held info sessions with our students at BINUS locally. We are currently exploring other opportunities to enhance the impact of our short courses. We want to use social media and study choice portals to recruit. What else can BINUS and partner universities do – in terms of program organization, content, and marketing strategies – to make sure students take the opportunity of value added learning in Indonesia?

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