A Memorandum of Understanding signed by Victoria Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) Professor Rob Rabel and Dr Komarudin Hidayat, Rector of Indonesia’s State Islamic University will see the arrival of an Indonesian academic to the School of Government early next year.
Victoria staff and students in the Master of Public Policy, Master of Public Management and Master of Strategic Studies programmes will learn about economics from a Muslim perspective, and the visiting lecturer will gain insights invaluable to the Indonesian university as they look to establish a school of government.
School of Government lecturer Associate Professor Jim Veitch says the agreement illustrates the University’s role “at the forefront of brokering new relationships between the two countries.”
In a second arrangement with an Indonesian university, the School of Government is overseeing an NZAid-sponsored lectureship at Gadjah Mada University (GMU) in Yogyakarta. Former Otago University academic Dr Simon Rae will take up a position at GMU’s Centre for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies in an agreement Dr Veitch says will pioneer connections between Victoria and GMU.
Dr Rae will help shape a unique intra-religious PhD programme that is supported by the country’s State, Christian, Islamic, and Catholic universities.