Post-Conflict Higher Education Challenges in Timor Leste

After 450 years of continuous foreign occupation, the 800,000 people of Timor Leste achieved full self-determination in May 2002, and their tiny island country became the world's newest state. Recovery and reconstruction after many years of conflict present major challenges for the first independent government, which is led by FRETILIN, the major political party within the anti-colonial movement. Government and civil society organizations alike recognise that the higher education system has a crucial role to play in the consolidation of independence, peace and democracy, especially in supporting and developing the capacity of the younger generations to assume leadership at all levels of society. Young people, including many university students, played a central role in the ultimate achievement of independence, for which far too many paid with their lives, including several hundreds who died in the Indonesian military's attack on unarmed demonstrators at the Santa Cruz cemetery in 1991, seen on television throughout the world. Students with strong traditions of sacrifice have high expectations for their new country, which the higher education system must help them realise by ensuring their inclusion in the nation-building development process now underway. The challenges are huge, too many to be detailed in such a brief piece.