Strategic Academic Cooperation with Resource Universities in Developing Countries through Laboratory-Based Education in Engineering Field

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of academic cooperation in the engineering higher education that introduces Laboratory-Based Education (LBE) at a resource university in developing countries, involving local universities in the target country. Nurturing human resources equipped with ability to use advanced knowledge and generate new ideas is indispensable for technological progress and hence for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in terms of accelerating economic growth and eliminating disparity between central and peripheral areas. LBE, Japanese-style engineering education, involves 4th grade undergraduate students and postgraduate students in research activities at his/her supervisor’s laboratory. LBE simultaneously strengthen research capability of faculty staff and nurture capable human resources through research in laboratories. A laboratory means a research team, not a room for experiments. Participation of faculty staff of local universities in LBE at a resource university is thus the key of the strategy that this paper presents. Verification of the proposed approach is based on the results of a technical cooperation project in Indonesia. The author participated in the project as an expert for LBE. The processes and outputs of the project suggested positive impact of the proposed approach for improving engineering education of local universities besides strengthening research capability of the resource university.