Unis give up teaching Indonesian just when we need our close neighbour Share Universities are making a serious mistake in closing down Indonesian-language programs just when Australia needs to strengthen it relationships and trade with Asian neighbours, the head of a leading languages organisation says. Democratic Indonesia is just the sort of country Australia should be engaging with, says professor David Hill. Binsar Bakkara Murdoch and La Trobe universities will stop taking enrolments for Indonesian next year, while three others expect to drop the language, leaving just nine out of 39 universities offering the subject. In 2019 there were only 178 Indonesian language students in all of Australia, 63 per cent fewer than in 1992.