Promoting Higher Education Abroad Program in Science and Engineering to Indonesian High Schools: Methods, Challenges and Recommendations

Abstract

This paper examines the promotional activities of higher education abroad program of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan, namely  Global Scientists and Engineers Program (GSEP), that was carried out in Indonesia. The objective is to document the lessons learned in the form of promotional methods, to identify the challenges, and to summarize some reccomendations. GSEP is an international Bachelor of Engineering degree program in Tokyo Tech majoring in Transdisciplicnary Scince and Engineering that is launched in 2015. This program is fully taught in English, thus it expects to attract more international students, such as from Asian countries, to  pursue  higher  education  in  Tokyo  Tech. For  this reason, the promotional activities in Indonesia was done in August 2016 by presentation in front of thirteen high schools in Jakarta and  nearby.  For  improvement  of  future  promotion  effort, participants were requested to express their evaluation regarding content  and  delivery  of  the  material  presentation  by  fulfilling questionnaire survey. The results reveal several interesting facts about Indonesian high school students, such as their willingness to study  abroad  even  without  scholarship,  and  some  important aspects on how to effectively promote higher education abroad program in science and engineering in Indonesia.