Jakarta. Australia's Monash University will open a new campus in Jakarta this year, after becoming the first foreign university to acquire the Indonesian government's approval to make inroads in the country's higher education market, the university said in a statement on Monday. 

Monash's arrival will be the first milestone in Indonesia's plan to attract the world's top universities to open branches in the country and revamp higher education across the archipelago.

Many local universities have been offering double-degree programs in partnership with foreign universities in the past few years. But Monash Indonesia will become the first fully-fledged foreign university campus in Indonesia.

"I'm very pleased Monash University will open an Indonesian campus," Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim said in a statement.

"This will help strengthen our education system and deepen the social, economic and technological links between Australia and Indonesia. This partnership will be the first out of many other partnerships to come," he said. 

Monash Indonesia will offer master's and doctorate degrees, as well as executive programs and micro-credentials.

Monash said its Indonesian campus will be a site for study, research and industry collaboration, particularly in "areas of high demand, including data science and digital technology, infrastructure and urban planning, creative industry and entrepreneurship and health systems and public health." 

Students at Monash Indonesia will earn a Monash University degree. The first class at its local campus will be a short executive program later this year, Monash said. Its master's degree programs will start taking in students in the fourth quarter of 2021. 

"Monash has a long history of engagement in Indonesia and a desire to build deeper links with a thriving and innovative community with great ambitions for education and research," Margaret Gardner, the president and vice-chancellor of Monash University, said in a statement. 

"The physical establishment also serves as a symbol of Monash's commitment to Indonesia and the wider Asian region, as well as stronger research and education links between Indonesia and Australia," she said. 

The Jakarta campus will be Monash's fourth overseas campuses after Monash University Malaysia, and partnered campuses in Suzhou, China, with SouthEast University and in Mumbai, India, with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.