About studying abroad

Have been hotly discussing the benefit and cost of studying abroad in a friend’s blog, especially when is the optimal time to do so.

The necessity of advance knowledge for development is undeniable. The most preferred way is to send young bright scholar to an excellent university or research centre abroad since the alternative of having too many foreigners advising a country is too costly. Moreover, the citizen would be more committed (hopefully) to develop its own country than an outsider.

Sending citizens to study abroad is exactly what Japan has done since Meiji Restoration and Singapore/Malaysia/China has been doing. Israel is the country with the highest percentage of PhD holder in the world.

My recurrent critic to my government (in informal chat, since I have no formal position) is why we have no (central) government-sponsored scholarship to study abroad. The only option is foreign scholarship. While the above countries has been getting benefit from returning scholars, my country spent the oil boom bonanza for so-called strategic industries (and who knows how much of it being corrupted).

But first, show me the money! Teacher/lecturer/researcher need to be able to pay the monthly bill with their salary since there is little side job available. It is illuminating how Singapore set their teachers’ salary as the highest among fresh bachelor graduates. My grandfather was a state lecturer while my grandmother was a high school teacher, they said that their salary (while they were still teaching) was quite high relative to living standard 30-40 years ago. Calling teachers as hero without medal while still giving ridiculously low salary will only lead to declining education quality in the future.

Remark must be also made on what to study and what to do after return. Engineering should make the biggest proportion, especially at master level with applied knowledge, in the field of biotechnology, oceanology/ship construction, IT and renewable energy. Some social scienctist and PhD (engineering and social) is necessary of course, but not too much if it is paid by the state. Human resource planning should be done ahead so that returning scholar will find appropriate and beneficial work. Should try to get them teach at least 1 class a week.

Now we come to the question of timing.

For many years, BPPT gave scholarship to study abroad since graduating high school. Most study technology and many stay abroad until PhD. Nevertheless, we heard little of them (except those on the spotlight of IPTN).

I would argue that it is better for state to give scholarship after finishing bachelor in (top) domestic university. The prospective scholar already more mature and will have less culture shock plus stronger domestic network to benefit from upon returning. It is also less costly since master degree is not more than two years while many PhD also offer financing as teaching/research assistant. Thus, offer more bang for the buck

The same calculation also apply to private individuals wish to study abroad. Do your bachelor in top domestic university, get some years of working experience then study abroad. Let the world be your oyster but get anchored to your root first.