Nusantara: controversial new capital city

As Jakarta (pop.10.6 million) rapidly sinks into the ocean — 40 percent of the greater metropolitan area of the country’s admin capital (pop.30 million) is now below sea level — Indonesia’s behind-schedule, controversy-ridden new capital city on the jungle-clad island of Borneo could spell a new era for the archipelago’s universities.

The ambition for the new capital Nusantara is bold: a futuristic, sustainable smart city that can propel Indonesia’s economy, supported by a “21st-century education cluster”, including world-class universities. Two years in, the reality is a little different: a development project that is lacking in investment and — somewhat ironically, given the situation in Jakarta — a stable water supply.

In June, amid concerns about the progress of the new capital, outgoing president Joko Widodo broke ground on the construction of a new branch of Gunadarma University, the first higher education institution in Nusantara. But analysts are doubtful that top universities, both within Indonesia and internationally, will be rushing to set up in the new capital.

Not only does the new city still lack basic infrastructure, there is unlikely to be a mass exodus from Jakarta. “Perhaps the government might offer very high incentives for these universities to build in the capital city, but at the end of the day in terms of population, in terms of the demand, (it) is still located in Jakarta,” says Teguh Yudo Wicaksono, head of the Mandiri Institute, an economic thinktank.

Indonesia has been attempting to attract international universities more widely in recent years, inviting top institutions to establish branch campuses and develop new research centres. In 2022, Australia’s Monash University opened a branch on the outskirts of the current capital — crucially, on the opposite side of the city to the sinking north Jakarta — while Deakin and Lancaster universities are set to open a joint campus in Bandung, 94 miles from Jakarta.