On April 19, 2022, the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) officially inked a cooperation agreement on International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) with the Indonesia Cyber Education Institute (ICE Institute) and Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (MECRT), Republic of Indonesia, to launch the IIOE National Centre of Indonesia. This historic moment is witnessed by Prof. Ismunandar, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Delegation of the Republic Indonesia to UNESCO, Dr. Itje Chodidjah, Chairman of the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO. At the same time, Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Politeknik Sahid, and Lentera Nusantara respectively signed agreements with newly established Indonesia IIOE National Center to jointly develop quality content of online education.

Since COVID-19, 4,500 higher education institutions in Indonesia have been faced with the challenge of delivering content online efficiently. Therefore, the Indonesian government has launched a national initiative to establish ICE Institute to coordinate and mobilize higher education resources for the country and implement online learning projects. ICE Institute supports traditional HEIs for this new norm of online teaching and learning and also provides policy recommendation to various stakeholders.

Prof. Paulina Pannen, Director of ICE Institute, says that ICE Institute has achieved progressive outcomes with support of MECRT, on developing and delivering online courses to the higher education community in Indonesia. ICE Institute also has established an active network of 46 partner institutions to continuously provide support to the higher education development of Indonesia. Prof. Ojad Darojat, Chairman of ICE Institute Consortium, introduced the development of ICE Institute and the important role it plays for the country, including supporting thousands of university teachers and students learning at home during the pandemic, which secured that graduates obtain credits and degrees without delays.

Mr. Lyu Feng, Assistant Director of UNESCO-ICHEI and Chief of IIOE Management Centre, introduced the activities and achievements of IIOE since its establishment. He believes this partnership will bring more benefits for university teachers in Indonesia and will achieve diverse quality content. Prof. Cher Ping Lim, Chief Expert of IIOE and Chair professor and Vice Dean of the Education University of Hong Kong, added that this cooperation is a milestone for the development of IIOE itself, which is considered an exploration of IIOE network from the institutional to the national level.

Prof. Li Ming, Director of UNESCO-ICHEI said that Indonesia, as the key country of ASEAN, plays an exemplary role in the development of various aspects in the sub-region. Committed to the Education 2030 agenda and the Future of Education Initiative, UNESCO-ICHEI is willing to co-develop resources and share benefits with Indonesia in the field of digital transformation of higher education. UNESCO-ICHEI will provide support to better cultivate interdisciplinary talents to support the digital economy development of Indonesia.

Prof. Ir. Nizam, Director General of Higher Education, Research and Technology, MECRT, said that he has high expectations of the cooperation between UNESCO-ICHEI and ICE Institute and he believes it is just the first step for many fruitful efforts in the future. He highlighted IIOE will bring benefits for the development of the higher education sector in Indonesia and will act as an example in the region.