A 10-year Reflection of International Partnerships, Relations, Collaborations: PART 1

Finalized on August 3, 2025

Upon coming back to Indonesia from my PhD in the US in June 2015, my mindset was all about what I could contribute to those around me. I was excited to return. Little did I know that I would be placed and immersed in the world of international partnerships, relations, or collaborations of higher education. September 2015 was when I was officially given the role of the Director of International Relations within the School of Business and Management of Institut Teknologi Bandung (SBM ITB), until January 2018. Then in June 2020 (during the pandemic), I was tasked as the Head of Division for International Partnerships at ITB’s Bureau of Partnerships. The name was changed to “International Relations” in June 2022. I then proposed a split to this division into two and my role became the Head of Division for International Collaborative Affairs (based on my suggestion to the leadership) since December 2023 until May 2025. Between January 2018 and June 2020, I was still involved in various international initiatives, which somehow became a bridge between the two periods. Overall, professionally in this field, it has been 10 years and it has been a journey not only of professional connections but also friendships and much more. It is now time for me to reflect on the years of crossing borders and what have led me to such privileges.

For this PART 1, I reflect on the period between 2002 and 2020 (especially before I started my time in the Bureau of Partnerships of ITB). For PART 2, I shall reflect on the period between June 2020 and June 2025.

Stage 0: Incubation (Pre-September 2015)

Keywords: Summer Schools, Astronomy Master’s Thesis, PhD

The Pre-September 2015 covered the period of my first participation in a summer school in 2006 in the Netherlands until I return from my PhD in the USA and adjusted back to the culture in Indonesia in 2015 (a total of 9 years). This is what I call the incubation stage, where I was “being prepared” without me knowing. Some activities during this period that I think were instrumental in helping prepare me:

1. Being a student of Astronomy at ITB (2002-2007). Subconsciously, being a student of ITB, particularly astronomy, exposed me to professors who were educated in different parts of the world: the USA, Japan, France, Germany, and others. This substantially provided a way to globalize the minds without necessarily going abroad. The social learning took placed, especially because of low number of students, making the environment very intimate.

2. Participating in Utrecht Summer School in Astrophysics: the Life and Death of Stars (2006). A 2-week program, the summer schools was my first time being exposed to many nationalities. At the dormitory, I was placed in the same flat with 3 other guys, from Greece, Spain, and Turkey (now Türkiye) respectively. Others are from the United States, Estonia, Portugal, Italy, and Belarus. The other city I spent time in was Amsterdam. There was another area we went to during the trip organized by the host - but I forgot the name!). I became particularly close with my Greek friend, who came to Indonesia to visit. In addition to Bandung, we went to Yogyakarta and Bali. The international environment was so impactful to me that I decided to join other summer schools or similar events.

3. Participating in Utrecht Summer School in Linguistics (2007). Still in Utrecht, this was a 1-week program that exposed me to something knowledge outside my field. Before the program, I arrived in Paris (with some other Indonesian friends) and we departed after some exploration. I then took a train to some cities in Switzerland and stayed a friend’s house in Zurich and moved on to see a friend I never met in Vienna (Austria). He spent time in Bandung and stayed in my room while I was away in the Netherlands in 2006. He was & is someone special to me that got me very interested in learning German. We have been extremely close up until now and I’ve stayed in his place many times now. From Vienna, I took a train to Munich for a transit and all the way to Utrecht for the summer schools.

4. Enrolling as a student in the Master of Science in Management Program at SBM ITB (2007-2009) and focusing the thesis on internationalization of higher education, specifically the Use of English. After the summer school, I became more confident in contributing to class discussions in English as I started my journey doing a master’s program. From the get-go, I had known what I wanted to study for my thesis, which was on the Use of English at SBM ITB (publication here!). I really took advantage of the fact that the program was taught fully in English, to improve my sense for English.

5. Enrolling in a German language course at ITB (2007-2008). At about the same time as I started my master’s program and as I got inspired by my Austrian friend, I started learning German as my second international language after English. Here, I met my future wife. She later went to Germany for a year before I asked if she wanted to marry me.

6. Participating in Social Enterprise for Economic Development (2007). This program was organized in Bandung and Cisondari Village, with fellow students from Singapore, Switzerland, and Germany. The participants became good friends and I came to visit some of them during my subsequent international trips. We were grouped and had to come up with certain initiatives for the villagers who were staying in for a couple of days. I learned again about cultural differences and similarities in the teamwork we had.

7. Participating in Helsinki Summer School in Intercultural Competence (2008). Hosted in Helsinki (Finland) for two weeks, this was my final summer school participation and something that helped shift me to become more knowledgable at the idea of intercultural competence. There were group works, cultural observation, and company visit / interview. Many of the participants became good friends, particularly 1 German friend who has been in touch back to back ever since. He and I planned a meet-up in Mumbai in 2009 and spent about a week there. We became quite close and met again several times in the US when we went to study abroad (before 2015) and in Berlin in 2018. Before this, I visited my friends and in Austria (Vienna) and Switzerland (Zurich, Winterthur, St. Gallen, Aarau). At this point, I became more familiar with Europe.

8. Organizing the 1st Bandung International Summer School in Astronomy (2008-2009). After participating in several summer schools, I became very motivated to organize my / our own summer school in Bandung and I initiated it by pitching it to faculty members and friends in the Astronomy field. With limited budget, we were able to host it with one international student from Romania. This was a great first exercise for organizing an international summer school.

9. Participating in an international conference in Boston, USA (2009). This was my first ever international conference and my first time in the USA. As usual and in most cases, I traveled on my own. Before the conference, my route was to meet up with a German friend in Mumbai (India) and to land and spend time in New York City before making my way by train to Boston. Some of my academic papers were published by the publisher that also organized the conference. Because I recieved financial assitance from the organizer, I served as a session facilitator, which was very impactful to me. I met other new people from different countries.

10. Receiving the Fulbright Doctoral Scholarship (2009) and being a PhD student at Rutgers University (Spring 2011 - Fall 2015). Not long after my trip to the USA, I got married in August and immediately received good news from AMINEF that my Fulbright Doctoral Scholarship application was successful. Long story short, I went to Rutgers University in New Jersey (USA) starting Spring 2011. My proposal at the time was inspired by the sequence of international events I was part of, focusing my work on cultural diversity in team (even though my dissertation topic shifted to ethical decision making). Little did I know that Rutgers was regarded as one of the most diverse universities in the USA. It has been in their DNA to champion the notion of diversity. There were quite a number of Fulbright students and my colleagues and friends were essentially from all around the world.

    
    

Overall, the above experiences have helped shape my international outlook and sensitivity when it comes to dealing with people from various countries, cultures, and backgrounds. I also had a chance to significantly improve my immersion in the English language, making it already a central part of my identity. Coming back to Indonesia, I was excited to give myself back. Upon returning, I was immediately asked to start plunging myself in a series of discussion regarding internationalization of ITB’s School of Business and Management, from developing international programs to developing double degrees.

Stage 1: September 2015 - February 2018

Keywords: International Relations, Cross-Cultural Management, International Trips

This period was the first time I had ever been exposed to the world of international relations of higher education. I was appointed as the Director of International Relations of ITB’s School of Business and Management. In the beginning, I worked with only 1 staff member. Towards the end, there were three staff members working with me. In addition, I worked with Heads of the Study Program of the school for their internationalization. My term actually ended in January 2018, but there were still several business trips that were scheduled in February 2018. Several things that I was allowed to do during this period are:

1. Restructuring the student exchange program and adding 10 new partners in 2016 and another 10 new partners in 2017 for the business school. Because of a relatively active initiative, I became in touch more or more with ITB’s Directorate of Partnerships and International Relations. Automatically, even when it was not my conscious intention, I became more known to this central office regarding the business school’s active internationalization efforts.

2. Being part of the initiation of several initiatives related to Switzerland, including the SwissInnovation Challenge Indonesia and the Swiss-ASEAN Learning and Teaching (SALT) Network, co-initiated by several colleagues from FHNW (Switzerland). During this period, the Swiss Embassy and university delegates also visited us. Many of the colleagues from these activities have become friends until now. Members of the SALT Network were from Switzerland, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

3. Visiting several universities or business schools abroad, particularly in the Netherlands, France, China, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the USA, alone. In France particularly, I was able to visit Kedge Business School (Marseille and Bordeaux), ESSCA School of Management (Angers) and Rennes School of Business (Nantes). For Rennes specifically, I was able to propose a decision that shaped future implementation of the double degree arrangement.

4. Proposing partnership criteria for the purpose of the AACSB accreditation process, aimed to help the business school to understand and maintain the quality of education through partnerships.

5. Attending my first ever NAFSA conference (the largest conference in the world for international education, international relations, or internationalization) in Denver (CO), USA, in 2016. This type of event allows us to meet new partners and maintain relations with existing partnerships. In addition, insight related to the field is there to absorb. One particular insight was one keynote speech that was about one fundamental principle of teaching, which is the treatment of students as human beings. Most likely, students will not remember what we teach, but they will remember how we treat them. This universal principle is fundamental to (international) education.

6. Inviting partners from the ASEAN region to deliver guest lectures in Bandung on the topic of international business. This was demanded by the Bachelor of Management program and made possible by the role I was given.

7. Helping to arrange visits in Bandung for partner university students, such as from University of Applied Sciences & Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and Chulalongkorn University (Thailand). Students from the universities were usually accompanied by their lecturer(s).

   
   

During this period, I was also teaching a course called “Cross-Cultural Management” at the Bachelor’s level and at the MBA program in Bandung and served as an Academic Advisor to students of the international undergraduate program in management. For the course, I organized international trips for the students, including to Bangkok (Thailand) and Taipei (Taiwan). In Bangkok, I reconnected with a friend from Rutgers University. This particular course and the job I was assigned to were extremely in line and complementary.

Overall, this was a period of my “launching” as someone who embarked on the field of international relations of higher education. In addition, this side of my life was one big highlight that allowed me to find “home” with in a period where I still had to make sense of several shocks and realities of coming back “home” to Indonesia. Interestingly, one of my undergraduate students at that time was interested in this “reversed culture shock” phenomenon becoming his final project thesis.

Stage 2: March 2018 - May 2020

Keywords: International Trips, Visiting Professor, International Collaboration Projects

During this period, I was not part of any formal organizational structure, especially one dealing with international relations. Nevertheless, I was still deeply involved in various international projects or activities and/or projects or activities related to international relations. I had “more freedom” in terms of being able to dedicate my time for more substantive (as opposed to accommodating) roles. Some of these projects or activities are the following:

1. Continuing being involved in the SwissInnovation Challenge Indonesia. This time around, my job was to become one of the jury members all the way until the end. I became closer with our Swiss colleagues from FHNW (Switzerland). At this time, the colleagues that I invited to be part of it had already had their "fuller" commitment to the program, allowing me to assist more (as opposed to taking charge).

2. Being more involved with the Swiss-ASEAN Learning and Teaching (SALT) Network, including presenting my idea in one of the annual meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The network was already felt like a family.

3. Being a visiting professor at Reutlingen University’s ESB Business School in Germany for three months (from October to December 2018). I was offered this position as I was not occupying the role of the Director of International Relations anymore. During the period, I taught two courses, one for Bachelor's students (Intercultural Management) and the other for Master's students (Diversity and Organizational Behavior). In my free time, I also had time to travel around Germany and around.

4. Arranging international study trips from my students, including to India (Mumbai) in April 2018 for undergraduate students, Switzerland (Zurich and Olten) in November 2018 for both undergraduate & MBA students, Malaysia (Penang) for MBA students and Thailand (Bangkok) for undergraduate students in late 2019. All these were organized before the pandemic. These would have me coordinate with my colleagues from the above countries. The trip to Zurich was made possible during my time in Germany as it was relatively more manageable to arrange.

5. Being asked to join the development of online modules related to soft skills for engineering students as part of the Erasmus-funded project, a collaboration project between several European universities (France, Spain, Sweden, Italy) and Southeast Asian universities (Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines). While the European counterparts take the role of the management of the project, the Southeast Asian members take the role of the module developers. While the project began in 2017 and I was asked to join by ITB’s Directorate of Partnerships & International Relations in 2018 before I went to Germany for my visiting professor program, I became more intensely involved starting in 2019. Some trainings were organized in Thailand and Indonesia. My role during this period was a module developers. The result of the project could be seen on a YouTube channel.

6. Organizing the International Summer School in Cross-Cultural and Conflict Management. I was in touch with my colleagues from Germany, Switzerland, Thailand, and the USA to provide some of the guest lectures. This was something I initiated and proposed to the International Relations Office of ITB’s School of Business and Management. They supported this proposal to be submitted for funding at ITB. While the program was supposed to be organized onsite in Bandung, we had to make it online because of the pandemic.

7. Being the Chairperson of the International Conference on Management in Emerging Markets 2020, with the preparation starting in 2019. I took the challenge of leading the team and aimed to make it more international than before, from the speakers to the participants. The case was similar to the summer school above in terms of making it an online event.

   
   

Overall, this was a period of “break” for me. But that break meant that I was given the time to not only reflect but also become more active in creating what I wanted to create and be involved in internationally. In around February-March 2025, I was contacted by one of my former professors from the astronomy program, which had just been appointed as the Bureau of Partnerships ITB. I was happy to reconnect and he wanted to nominate me to help him in his office in relation to international partnerships. He was informed that I used to be in charge of or responsible for something similar at the business school. Later on, I learned that it was the leaders of the previous administration dealing with partnerships and international relations who recommended me.

Some Points Learned

During this 18-year journey being, including the 10 years being professionally involved in international partnerships, relations, and collaborations, there are some of the things I learned:

1. During my PhD period (2011-2015), a colleague of mine introduced me to the MBTI personality test, which would reveal that I tended to be an introvert (particularly an INFJ). An INFJ's more dominant functions are theoretically introverted intuition and extraverted feeling. I had realized that this job focused on building bridges with people and institutions from various nations was perfect for my self-development, leading to personal and professional maturity. Overall, the job of these two functions is to connect and harmonize work-related aspects and relevant stakeholders. Under this mode, it is almost impossible for me to distinguish between whether what I do is for myself or for others who will benefit from my actions, when self-actualization and self-transcendence overlap.

2. Landing on this job in this area was not really what I had imagined I would do. I do believe that the universe works in a mysterious way. Something is handed over to me out of my capacity to imagine. So, it felt like a match in heaven. I fell in love with connecting myself internationally, across borders. I felt and feel this transcendental power so immensely whenever I became or become reminded of this fact, being interconnected with what is within me. I would later started an instagram account in 2018, named "jetlag_andikapp" exactly out of this realization of I am "not belonging entirely to any particular group of people." This rather "borderless" mental space was and is something that has become the world I have felt the most natural, serving with purpose entrusted to me.