Ten years after it first passed a law allowing the entry of foreign universities, Indonesia’s ­Research, Technology, and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir last week announced that foreign universities would be able to operate in partnership with local private universities.

He said there would be a limit to the number of partnerships ­allowed and that courses could focus only on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, business, technology, or management according to reports.

Despite the decade-old law ­allowing foreign universities, a major stumbling block to implementing the policy has been that 85 percent of the country’s ­universities are privately owned, including by power and influential supporters of the government who have been able to slow ­progress towards the foreign entry.

International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said that with only 19,000 Indonesian students studying in Australia, the country had not thus far provided a major export market for Australian universities and delivering education in Indonesia itself would be more of an opportunity.

“Over many years, Indonesia has been a massive challenge for Australian education providers to gain market entry. While many of our TAFE institutes and vocational education providers have been delivering technical skills there, barriers to entry for higher ­education have been very difficult to overcome,” he said.

“As Indonesia increasingly ­becomes the go-to country in the ASEAN group for high-level manufacturing and fintech, financial services, they’ve decided that foreign high education providers must have a role to play.”

At a press conference to ­announce the new policy, Mr. Nasir addressed concerns about the influence foreign universities might have, which has been another stumbling block. “Do not consider this as a new colonialism, it is not like that because the point is about collaboration,” he said.

Indonesia requires all educational institutions to devote 15 percent of their curricula to teaching Indonesian cultural ­values, including religious and ­Islamic values.

Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said she expected several local universities would assess opportunities “and see what makes sense both for Indonesian students and for Australian universities”.

“What that presence might look like is hard to predict at this stage and it appears that there will be conditions on where international providers will be able to ­operate and the disciplines being offered,” Ms. Robinson said.

Not only would the opening up provide opportunities to Indonesian students to study at a ­Australian university in their own country, there is potential for ­students outside of Indonesia who might find it cheaper to enroll in the Indonesian campus of a ­Australian university rather than making the move to Australia ­itself, Ms. Robinson said.

Several Australian universities have campuses in Asia or established partnerships, joint ventures or some type of local presence, ­including James Cook University, Adelaide, Murdoch, Curtin, Newcastle in Singapore and Monash and Swinburne in Malaysia.

Foreign universities have been a particular negotiating point in an Australia-Indonesia free trade agreement, which is currently underway.