Prabowo unveils a plan to build 10 free medical universities, all taught in English

Jakarta, Thekabarnews.com—As part of a long-term plan to fix the country’s lack of doctors, the Indonesian government wants to build 10 new universities. These universities will teach medicine to worldwide standards.

President Prabowo Subianto said the initiative was a strategic step to make Indonesia’s healthcare workforce stronger. It also aims to raise the standard of medical education across the country.

There are not enough doctors and other medical professionals in Indonesia right now. The country needs about 140,000 more doctors. However, it does not have the resources to train new ones.

“We make just approximately 9,000 doctors a year. It will take a long time to close the gap, and by the time we do, many doctors will have already retired. This is why we need a strategic and long-term solution,” the president said, according to the Presidential Secretariat, Wednesday, January 21.

To solve this challenge, the government aims to create 10 new universities. These universities will focus on important areas including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, science, and technology. The president said that they will build these schools to meet global academic standards. English will serve as the primary medium of instruction.

“I want to use British standards, which are the finest educational standards from top colleges in the UK,” stated Prabowo.

The president announced that these universities will select the best high school graduates from throughout Indonesia. The government will provide full scholarships to all accepted students.

Students will get a lot of English language training before they start their academic programs. This is to make sure they are ready for an international learning environment.

The government aims to develop international-standard teaching hospitals on each site in addition to building universities. These hospitals will be places where students may get clinical training. Moreover, the public can also get sophisticated medical care there.

President Prabowo said that building teaching hospitals could also assist in lowering the number of Indonesians who go abroad for medical care.

“In my opinion, if we create teaching hospitals on every campus that meet world standards, we might save up to $6 billion a year, and that money could go to these universities and hospitals,” he remarked.

The government wants to speed up the process of meeting the country’s medical workforce needs via this strategy. At the same time, it wants to make Indonesia’s education and healthcare institutions stronger. This move will help them compete with other countries.