Two world-renowned universities are planning to collaborate to build a technology campus in Serangan Village, South Denpasar District, Denpasar, Bali.
The two campuses are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Tsinghua University.
MIT is a technology university in the United States. Rating agency Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) places this college number one in its ranking of the world’s best universities. Meanwhile, Tsinghua University is located in Beijing City, China, and is ranked 17th globally by QS.
“Indeed, it is the Serangan area, there is indeed a plan there to build a Tsinghua-MIT collaboration college,” said Bali Governor Wayan Koster.
Koster said that the permit for the construction of the technology campus wasn’t issued before he served as governor and he immediately welcomed the development. He confirmed that the construction of a technology campus in Bali is very good news.
With the technology campus, Indonesian people who want to study technology will not need to go abroad. Overseas students who want to study at MIT and Tsinghua can study while traveling to Bali.
“This is educational tourism. We will have health tourism, educational tourism, and sports tourism,” said Koster.
“The target market is not us, here. If there are people in Bali who have the ability to continue studying in America or to which countries are qualified, especially in the field of technology, who previously went abroad, now they don’t need to,” said Koster.
Although permission has been granted, Koster did not reveal when the campus will begin construction or will be ready for students. He said that he only hopes that the construction of the campus can spur the quality of education on the Island of the Gods.
“I think this will be a data attraction for people outside Bali to come to Bali to attend lectures, it’s the foreign exchange for us. This is good for spurring our education in Bali to be of higher quality,” said Koster.