How to Choose among Studying abroad or at Home Town

International students/ image resources from university of bridgeport

Deciding to take further studies, for some people, are quite pressure. Especially, as they plan to increase their formal education to be a master, a minimum requirement for being a lecture in Indonesia. The next thing need to be decided is choosing the place to reach the master program, a kind of dilemmatic decision indeed. Generally speaking, I believe that it is better for all concern if graduate students from Bangka Belitung pursue his master program abroad especially in US or Europe, particularly if they are going to take journalism or English program.

First of all, it is important to consider the quality of education standard. Certainly, there are so many familiar universities in Indonesia can support students with any programs they have. However, in any parts of the world today, there are many universities from US or Europe ranked in top ten qualified universities over the world because of their highest education standard. Moreover, the universities like Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, or Yale become the leading of research and the role model of practice for both journalism and English subject. By way of example, I can recall when I was studying at university in Bandung. Most of referencebooks about journalism were written by a practice or a researcher from some US universities above. This in turn had adverse effect on my study performance.

In addition to the importance of quality standard, I think this is better for the student potential. By pursuing master from the highest education institution, then it would likely create a smart person and a creative thinker. Off course, both Indonesian universities and outside universities could not guarantee all students to be success, still I am sure that the best institution could explore the student’s capacity and sharpen their skills both practically and theoretically. For instance, I can recall my friend who studied abroad and become more potential person than him whom I saw first at the college. His view was expanded and qualified than his at the first grade at college.

Finally, studying abroad for a student means there would be a potential addition to human resources in developing Bangka region when they come back. As a small island at the south Sumatera Island, the developing of human resource in Bangka was actually less than other region in Sumatera even in Java. So, it is a need to upgrade the student mindset to equalize or to take more steps ahead from other students of Sumatera or Java islands for better opportunities ahead. For example, since old to recent days, many graduated students fail to compete with other students from Java or Sumatera in public servant vacancies or in any private companies even at their own land. As the result, many functionaries in public servant department are not Bangka inhabitant.  Indeed, getting master degree could be a right way for dweller to serve their best in own place.

By way of conclusion, based on the arguments explored above, I am of the opinion that in most cases it is actually more beneficially for Bangka grads to gain their master program outside Indonesia. Moreover, studying abroad is like a bridge to connect other country to another in order to create mutual understanding for better future. ***