Description
Indonesia, a nation that has rapidly evolved from its colonial roots into the world's third-largest democracy, a significant player in the Muslim world, and one of the globe's most influential economies. This joint minor program invites you to delve into this remarkable nation, where tradition intersects with tomorrow.
Picture a nation undergoing a profound urban revolution. Indonesia is committed to the development of 100 smart cities and currently builds a new capital inspired by the United Nations' sustainable development goals. Yet, amidst its impressive progress, Indonesia grapples with disparities, particularly between urban and rural areas, which manifest in infrastructure deficits and limited access to essential services such as infrastructure, health and education. Throughout the program, you'll delve into these complex issues and explore how your insights and ideas can contribute to bridging these gaps.
Indonesia serves as an intricate microcosm of contemporary global challenges, from climate change and sinking cities to biodiversity loss. However, it's also a hotbed of inventive solutions, such as green practices rooted in Islamic traditions and time-tested methods of water and waste management. Our joint minor program revolves around rapidly urbanizing regions in the global South, highlighting the ingenious forms of resilience that these regions exhibit. More importantly, it empowers you, as an LDE student, to think critically about these challenges, formulate recommendations and thus take the lead in creating positive change.
This program aligns with the Indonesia – Netherlands Universities Consortium on Sustainable FuTures (INUCoST), in which the LDE universities and their Indonesian partners focus on crucial themes such as Energy and Food Transition, Water Quality Management, Environmental Justice, Digitalizing Society, Public Health, and Heritage.. Concepts like co-creation and citizen science will be your guides as you explore how Indonesia is shaped by its potential future scenarios. Utilizing mixed methods such as multimodal and sensory ethnography, social media analysis, interviews and surveys, and in some cases prototyping, you will make the future tangible and engage in meaningful discourse.
For whom?
The Future Challenges LAB is to be held entirely in Indonesia and runs from early September to beginning of December. This minor is held in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Universitas Indonesia. The program's coordination is meticulously managed by the LDE Coordinator at the Office of Leiden University in Indonesia and conducted at the Depok Campus of Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, where students will stay for three subsequent months.
Collaborate with fellow LDE and Indonesian students from diverse disciplines to establish your multidisciplinary theme project. Fieldwork takes you to the bustling city of Jakarta and its near surroundings, where we invite you to work on urban challenges as provided by our Dutch Embassy, Asian Development Bank, UNESCO and various research projects by our LDE and Indonesian partners. This exceptional minor program culminates in a written policy brief, offering you a platform to present your insights and solutions to a broader audience of stakeholders.
No prior knowledge of Indonesian language and culture is required and students from different disciplines are welcome. However, an interest in working with students from other disciplines and a willingness to work in a team and test new methods is a requirement.
Maximum number participants: 25
Type of minor: Selection minor
Selection procedure
The selection for the Minor Future Challenge Lab comprises two key components: an Essay on Ecological Footprint and an Intake Interview.
Essay on Ecological Footprint: Applicants must submit a one-page (max) reflection in English, analyzing their own ecological impact partaking in a minor abroad and, if applicable, suggesting ways to offset it. This initiative encourages students to critically assess their footprint—particularly in the context of international travel for a sustainability-focused minor. While no numerical scores are assigned, a well-reasoned and thoughtful reflection is essential for selection. Please send your essays to Prof.dr. B.A. Barendregt.
Intake Interview: Candidates with strong essays will be invited to a 10-minute interview with the program coordinator. This conversation evaluates their expectations, interdisciplinary mindset, and ability to collaborate across cultures. Scenarios based on past program experiences help assess adaptability to teamwork, fieldwork in marginalized communities, and campus life in Indonesia.
Diversity Considerations: The interview also ensures a diverse cohort, fostering a rich learning environment through varied academic, cultural, and personal perspectives.
What will you learn
Critical reflective analysis of the ways in which Indonesia and other countries in the global South deal with the major challenges of our time, the often ingenious and resilient answers they manage to find and what we in the global North can learn from them.
Gain an understanding of the challenges of interdisciplinary work using concepts such as co-creation, citizen science and the application of methods from different disciplines, including ethnography, surveys, design and prototyping
Knowledge of country, language and culture, and using this to understand the most pressing problems and communicate about them with Indonesian counterparts.
Learn how to conduct independent research within a multidisciplinary and multinational team. Students go through all phases of the research cycle. This means, among other things, developing a chosen research theme; operationalization based on theory; writing an outline; collecting research data; analysis and reporting of data; presentation in the form of a short policy report at a one-day conference
Course overview
This is a 30 ECTS minor, there is no 15 ETCS option and all courses take place physically in Indonesia (no offline or hybrid possibilities). The minor consists of the following courses:
10 ECTS course Future Indonesian Challenges
This course looks from different disciplinary perspectives at the major challenges that Indonesians face, from climate change and sinking cities to the loss of biodiversity and what digitalization does to social relationships and inequality. Through three interconnected thematic blocks—Historical Legacy, Contemporary Global Entanglements, and Figuring Out the Future —we will explore key questions: How did we arrive at this point? What makes the Indonesian case unique? And what broader lessons can be applied globally?
5 ECTS Speaking Bahasa Indonesia
An intensive basic Indonesian course mainly focused on simple everyday communication; introducing yourself, shopping, ordering food, transport and some day-to-day inquiries. The course is aimed at those without any prior knowledge of the language.
5 ECTS Designing your interdisciplinary team project
A week-long intensive workshop in which students from the LDE and Indonesian partner universities, and from various disciplines jointly define a problem, formulate questions inspired by real world challenges (provided by our partners) and then further operationalize this using a mix of methods. The emphasis in the workshop is on the concepts of co-creation and team and citizen science, while methods are inspired by anthropology and collective work on prototypes and creative solutions. The outcome is a joint research proposal that as a team can be implemented in three weeks.
10 ECTS Fieldwork & Policy Report
Teams of 4 students (multinational, multidisciplinary) carry out their research proposal in situ, receiving regular feedback from the lecturers involved. After returning from the field, a short policy paper (3-4) pages is jointly written that will be presented to an audience of stakeholders during the final meeting.
Participating institutions
Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University (Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology)
Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft
International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia
Register for this minor
PLEASE NOTE: All students (Leiden University, TU Delft and EUR) need to register for this minor via EduXchange
Timeline selection
Application Period for Selection Minors: 1 April 2025 (13:00) - 10 April 2025 (23:59) (Central Minor Coordinators)
Exchange of Student Data for Selection Minors to Faculties: Friday 11 April 2025 (Central Minor Coordinators)
Selection by Faculties: 11 April 2025 – 16 April 2025 (Faculties)
Enrollment of Selected Students in Selection Minors: Thursday 17 April 2025 (Central Minor Coordinators)
More information on how to apply via EduXchange can be found via this link.
Prospectus code: 6000M0005N
More information
There are additional costs associated with this course:
Students bear costs for their return plane ticket to Indonesia, their visa application, residence permit,insurance (universal health insurance with World Coverage, third party liability, travel insurance), and vaccinations (depending on personal travel history and doctor's advice). The above mentioned total costs differ per person but are estimated at an average of at least 1500 euros.
The average contribution per student for accommodation is about 300 euros but also depends on the choice of accommodation. Additionally, there are daily living costs for local transport, electricity, laundry, mobile phone subscription, and food (these costs will be explained during the information meeting in May or June).
For more information, you can contact Prof.dr. B.A. Barendregt