Universitas Pelita Harapan: Jessup 2009...

It has been a few years, so it was nice to see some of these pictures pop up on Facebook.

My time coaching the Universitas Pelita Harapan (Pelita Harapan University / UPH) law mooting teams was a real pleasure for me. I am yet to meet such a dedicated bunch before or since. The core of this team was committed to learning and achieving. Ultimately, the year following this one, they did achieve their goal of winning the Indonesian National Round of the Jessup International Law Moot competition.

Many of them have now gone onto careers in the law, joined the diplomatic corps, or have opted for further study. I am proud of each and every one of them. I hope that over the years I will remain in touch with all of them. I am certain that they will all continue to achieve and excel in their chosen fields (so, keeping in touch might get me a sympathy job at some point in the future, right?).

These are photos from 2009. The second one is standing around in the cold Washington DC air. And, the first one is a "last supper" that we shared when we arrived back in Jakarta and before I left to come back to Australia. The bag contained an awesome little scrapbook of memories and kind words (which sits on my desk, and to which I look regularly). It also contained an iPod which I continue to use and enjoy!

I really enjoyed the opportunity. I hope they learned something useful about the law and about life. In a lot of ways I consider them to be family, especially seeing they all turned up to check out Will when he was born. And, we spent a lot, a lot, of time together working on research and memorials and oral advocacy over teh two years we dedicated to the UPH mooting cause.

Thanks to all of you!

Universitas Pelita Harapan: Asia Cup 2007...

Some of my fondest memories of Indonesia relate to coaching moot court teams. I had the great fortune of working with the students from Universitas Pelita Harapan (Pelita Harapan University / UPH) from 2007 through 2009. The students that I worked with were one of the most dedicated groups that I have had the pleasure of working with. They were not only keen to learn, but they were keen to get better, and they were prepared to put in the hard yards to achieve those goals.

The first time I worked with the UPH students was in preparation for the Asia Cup Law Moot competition that is organised by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is by invitation only. The competition was held in Tokyo. The team worked hard to get to Japan. The effort included a weekend of seclusion / retreat at Kota Bunga (Puncak) that was designed to allow total focus on the task at hand, writing memorials. However, as these photos suggest, there was also time for a little relaxation as well.

My thanks to all the team members and their very dedicated team advisor (Pricilla, James, Johan, Nenda, Sunny, and Levin, and of course Michelle).

UPH -- National Champions -- Jessup International Law Moot...

My congratulations go out to the Universitas Pelita Harapan Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition Team who recently won the National Round of the Jessup.

This is the culmination of a lot of hard work over a lit of years. I am proud of their achievement. It seems I should of hung around for another year in Indonesia, and then I could have claimed some responsibility for their convincing win. I would have been their coach and had another trip to Washington DC.

But, on a serious note. Congratulations!

Your success is well deserved. Hopefully, that success is not over and you can improve on last year's performance at the international rounds. The competition gets fiercer every year. So, preparation is always key, you never really can do too much preparation. Yet, do not forget to enjoy the moment, as these moments do not come along all that often.

So, to the team...congratulations and good luck!

You know where to find me if you need anything.

Campus Asia Magazine Recognizes UPH's Jessup Mooters

I have previously bagged the Campus Asia magazine, which is part of the Globe Asia stable, and will probably bag it again. However, this time I am writing to congratulate them for recognizing the Universitas Pelita Harapan Philip C. Jessup International Law Mooting Competition Team (cover photo sans their coach!).

The UPH team (James, Pricilla, Johan, and Nenda) achieved an excellent result in the competition. They placed 13th out of more than 500 teams who competed.

They worked very hard and deserve all the recognition that they get. On a personal note, as their coach it seems that I deserved some recognition as well. I must say that I do not do it for the recognition. In fact, I do it to shape the future. I know that I have played an integral part in shaping the next generation of Indonesian advocates. And, it is always pleasing to see the students far exceed the master.

Having judged and coached mooters from all over Indonesia over the last eight years, I am confident in saying that the future of Indonesian law is bright. I know that some of my colleagues do not share my confidence, but let me assure you that I am right!

The beauty of being an educator is that we get to shape the next generation. Educators may very well be under-appreciated and under-respected in terms of salary and other things, but it is we who will have the last laugh.

To my team, and once again, congratulations! You deserve the rewards that you have reaped to date and will continue to reap as former mooters (and for some of you current mooters). And, I am enjoying the iPod...thanks!

A Small and Unexpected Surprise...

This post follows on from the earlier posts on the Jessup Competition. I have enjoyed, thoroughly, the past two years working with and coaching the UPH Jessup Moot Team (in the photo: Johan, James, Pricilla, Yours Truly, and Nenda). It is always nice to see a group of dedicated and committed students willing to go the whole ten yards and sacrifice a little bit along the way to achieve their goals.

A long story short, they invited me out to dinner last night. I am thinking this is just a chance to say our goodbyes as they are moving on to new and different things in their university careers and me and mine are pulling up stumps and heading back to Australia. This was very much how the evening was going. However, when we were about to call it a night, they surprised me with a cool little book that had photos of our journey over the last two years and a personal note from each of them.

This was a very nice gesture and much appreciated. However,there was more to come. They also gave me an iPod touch. Now, this was not just a nice gesture but also very cool. I am so technologically challenged that it is going to take me some time to work it all out. Yet, it will be fun in doing so. It also happens to be the first Mac thing that I have ever owned.

Now it is off to iTunes and download the necessary software to get started on this journey.

The Jessup Follow-Up

This is just a short post to note the success of the Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) effort at the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition.

The Team ended up being ranked 13th out of 120 teams. This is an impressive effort and highlights once again that Indonesian students can compete and succeed against the best in the world. The picture shows the team at the "Go National Ball" with team members from the University of Hawaii.

Congratulations!

Off To The Good Ol' US of A...

I am heading off to the US later tonight for about 12 days. I might try and post while I am away or I might not.

I am heading there with the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot team from Pelita Harapan University. The Jessup is the most prestigious of the international law moot competitions and this also happens to be the 50th anniversary of the competition.

I am looking forward to being in Washington DC and attending the competition. I am not so happy about having to spend time away from the two most important people in my life, the Missus and Will. Work is work, I suppose.

Time to pack some stuff (the stuff being clothes) for the journey ahead.

Campus Asia

Campus Asia is a magazine from the Globe Media stable and is published by the Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) but it could also be titled "UPH Love Fest" or "What Makes UPH Indonesia's Best University?" or "Christian Education the Riady Way". There is not a lot about Asia! There are a few articles here and there about other Indonesian universities but only in support of a quite obvious agenda. I should add here that I am not so concerned about the agenda in this particular edition "National Education Reform" as this is something I am keen to see happen as well.

However, I do have a little bit of an issue with the reprinting of the recent Globe Asia's Guide to Indonesian Universities as this agenda is one where a clear statement of disclosure is needed as the rankings were done not on external factors or by an external agency but by Globe Asia which is part of the Riady family empire as is UPH. The piece ends with a statement to the effect that not everyone will agree with the rankings but that the factors used to rank will withstand scrutiny; "yeah, even if I do say so myself!"

UPH is ranked 2nd behind Universitas Indonesia (UI) and above Universitas Gajah Mada (UGM) and then a considerable distance above other perennial favourites in Indonesia like the Bandung Institute of Technology, Trisakti, Tarumanagara, Universitas Padjajaran, Universitas Atma Jaya, Universitas Parahyangan, Universitas Airlangga, and many others.

The real treat in these ranking systems is the skewing of them to incorporate holistic approaches and campus dynamism which UPH seems to excel at compared to other universities. A careful reading of the factors and the scores highlights that UPH is already Indonesia's best university. But it would seem that in order to make this look like a serious attempt at ranking Indonesia's universities there has been a section "Impact to Society" (I would have thought impact "on" society, but whatever) added. If this was not added then UPH would have crushed UI as Indonesia's best university by a total of 32 points. However, UI redeemed itself by outscoring UPH on things like 'influence on society', 'employability', and 'legacy and history'.

The rankings give an edge to universities with new facilities and to institutions that have lots of facilities. When one considers the amount of money being thrown at (invested) in UPH it is hardly surprising that it out ranks all comers in this category. The other category that UPH does well in is the international faculty rankings. This is also a result of a lot of money being spent on getting the faculty here in the first place. But hey, if you have the money then why not?

The reality is that if the Riady family sees this dream to fruition then it may well one day be Indonesia's best university and quite probably by a very wide margin unless some other rich people decide to invest in education in the way the Riady's have. But the claim to being Indonesia's second best university in 2008 is a little premature. If a more relevant and appropriate weighting was given to the holistic factors then UPH would rank much further down the list. It is worth noting that in most other university ranking systems the facilities component is weighted at about half of what it is in the Globe Asia rankings.

This post is not an attempt to discredit UPH or the education your kids might get if you can afford to send them there or they are lucky enough to get a scholarship or something, but rather it is an attempt to highlight a blatant conflict of interest and a classic example of self-promotion. I guess the Riady family did not get as wealthy as it did without a little bit of self-promotion but this is not the point. If you are going to post a university rankings list which you are promoting as authoritative then you should disclose that the rankings are something that you have come up with yourself!

My question is how do you say you are helping people to make an informed decision about university education when you are not being forthright about the underpinnings of those very rankings you promote. Nevertheless, even with the disclosure I would still find the rankings to be an anomaly to the real rankings that have been garnered by Indonesian universities under other ranking systems.