Institute for History Annual Report 2010 - O - Universiteit Leiden

2006 were restricted to preparing and setting up
the programme. This involved establishing collaboration
with the three partner institutions in
Indonesia, organising education for the first year
and selecting the first group of students. In
January, Peter Meel and Wim van den Doel went
to Jakarta to visit the Arsip Nasional and the
Universitas Indonesia. Selection of the Indonesian
students is carried out in close collaboration with
these two institutions as well as with the Universitas
Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta. In early June
2006, Charles Jeurgens made a visit to Yogyakarta,
where he acted as the Leiden representative in the
pre-selection of Indonesian candidates. The files of
these students and of students from other Asian
countries were then evaluated in Leiden by the
ENCOMPASS scholarship committee, which made
a final selection of ten students. In early
September, ENCOMPASS was officially and
festively launched in the presence of a large
number of Dutch and foreign guests including the
Director of the Arsip Nasional, Djoko Utomo and
the Indonesian Minister of Administrative Reform,
Taufik Effendi. For the occasion, a special brochure
had been put together which both provided
information on the programme and acted as a PR
instrument for the ENCOMPASS programme.
The ten students selected arrived in Leiden around
15 August, and in the last week of August they
began their intensive training in the Dutch
language, which lasted four weeks and which was
provided for by Yolande Spaans. The follow-up
Dutch course started around 15 September and
was given by René Wezel. In addition, the
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students followed three history courses, given by
Leonard Blussé and Piet Emmer, Charles Jeurgens
and Alicia Schrikker. The results of the students so
far are satisfactory, even though the level varies
significantly between the students. Unfortunately,
the student from Sri Lanka had to discontinue her
studies due to her failure, despite repeated resits,
to keep up with the Dutch language training. In
2005, a research programme was developed
covering the period from 2009 to 2017. Its aim is to
offer the best students the possibility to continue
their education in Leiden and in addition, to
ensure the continuity and innovation of research
on the Modern and Early Modern history of Asia.
The emphasis in this research programme lies on
the use of Dutch colonial sources. The proposal
was submitted to NWO in the Spring of 2006, but
was not awarded any financial means. The
programme is now in the process of being rewritten
and will be submitted again in the Spring
of 2007. In June 2006, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs granted a sum of € 206,000 as a
contribution to the costs of maintaining relations
with the institutions in Asia and making possible
the local recruiting of students. An expenditure
plan for this sum was submitted to the Ministry in
October.
The spring of 2007 will be devoted to the recruitment
and selection of the new students for the
year 2007/2008. Applications have already been
sent in from China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and
Indonesia. Active recruiting is being carried out on
a continuous basis. The final selection for the class
of 2007/2008 will take place in May. In September