King's College London Investment Value In Malang Reaches 2 Million US Dollars

President Director of PT Intelegensia Grahatama and Chairman of the King's Singhasari Indonesia Foundation David Santoso. Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI

JAKARTA - King's College London (KCL) has begun to be built in the Singhasari Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Malang, East Java. It is targeted that its first operation in Indonesia will be carried out in September.

President Director of PT Intelegensia Grahatama and Chairman of the King's Singhasari Indonesia Foundation David Santoso said the investment for campus infrastructure development reached 2 million US dollars.

With this large investment, he said King's College London in Malang would be ready to accommodate more than 300 students.

"For the infrastructure, which currently has approximately USD 2 million. So, the land and infrastructure that we initially carried out were indeed growing according to the number of students," David told reporters when met at the office of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, Jakarta, Thursday, June 20.

Apart from that, David also targets three other new international universities to enter SEZ Singhasari, Malang, in the next three years. The plan, a number of these universities will enter gradually every year.

"In the next three years, we hope that several other Russell Groups (world's best) extra Ivy Leagua (US best universities) and some of the other regions will enter into developing human development zones which we will report to the Coordinating Minister (Airlangga Hartarto) the development pattern," he said.

"Next year we are targeting one (to enter SEZ Singhasari), next year there will be one more. So, maybe in the next three years there will be at least three (world leading universities entering)," he said.

Previously, King's College London (KCL) had obtained a campus establishment permit in the Singhasari Special Economic Zone (KEK), Malang, East Java. The permit was granted by the government through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek).

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs (Menko Perekonomian) Airlangga Hartarto said the construction of an educational cluster with the KCL college in Malang would encourage superior human resources (HR).

Airlangga added that KCL can also be a liaison for collaboration with surrounding universities, such as Universitas Brawijaya and Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang.

"This synergy is needed to prepare our human resources," said Airlangga at his office, Thursday, June 20.

He said that later KCL would open registration quota for 150 students at the opening of learning operations in September.

"It is hoped that it will become a role model for surrounding universities, such as Universitas Brawijaya and the nearest Muhammadiyah University," he said.