Higher Education in Indonesia and the Role of Transnational Education

As transnational higher education is here to stay, developing countries like Indonesia should make provision for it in preparing their national plans for the development of higher education. Given the economic crisis of 1998‐1999 in this country that has led to cutbacks in traditional higher education possibilities, transnational offerings in some cases may help to fill the gap. However, transnational offerings should be regulated by national authorities in order to protect the population from low-quality and/or fraudulent offerings. It should not be restricted abusively for the sake of restricting it. Rather, in developing countries, traditional and transnational higher education offerings should be complementary. Organizations like GATE and INQAAHE should collaborate in the elaboration of a formal recognition process to be adopted by national accreditation bodies involved in transnational higher education.