Makassar, 31 March 2026
The PELITA Project (Understanding the Education and Labor Market Consequences of Indonesia’s Quest to Become the World’s Leading Nurse Exporting Nation) held another routine online meeting on March 31, 2026. The meeting involved research team members from across institutions LMU Munich (Germany), Universitas Hasanuddin, the Australian National University (ANU), Universitas Airlangga, and field research team members. This activity involved 11 participants, consisting of the Pelita Leader, Prof. Dr. Julia Lohmann; Principal Investigators, Prof. Rini Rachmawaty, Prof. Ferry Efendi, and Prof. Firman Witoelar; Research Assistants, Andi Dian Miranda Yusran. P, Eliana ChavarrĂa Pino, Tri Yatmi, and Nursindia A. Sugoro; and Research Administrators, Muh. Fadhil Ichsan Jaya and Anisa Salsabila.
The main agenda covered team updates, budget analysis and sampling institution selection, research ethics submission progress, alumni survey (tracer study) strategy, the project management system, and preparations for the facetoface meeting in June 2026.
In this meeting, Prof. Rini Rachmawaty reported a change in field research team members. Several previous members have returned to their primary positions and are therefore unable to fully commit to the PELITA project. As a replacement, a new member named Dian has officially joined as a Master’slevel Research Assistant (RA). The recruitment process for a doctorallevel RA position is still ongoing, given the challenge of finding a PhD candidate in the social sciences who does not hold other employment, particularly in the Makassar area.
Regarding the budget and field visit plan, Prof. Rini presented the results of a cost analysis for visits to 61 target institutions using Indonesian government cost standards as a reference. Cost components include roundtrip airfare from Makassar to each institution’s location, as well as daily allowances for RAs during data collection (estimated at 4 days per visit). The total estimated field visit expenditure amounts to approximately IDR 500 million, which remains within the available budget. It was agreed that field visits will be conducted in clusters of approximately 10 institutions per trip to save costs and time.
During the research ethics session, the team conducted a thorough review of the draft ethics protocol together with Prof. Julia Lohmann of LMU Munich and Eliana ChavarrĂa from the research team. Several key points were agreed upon, including the need to clarify the operational definitions of key variables, provide more detailed explanations of participant criteria, and describe the number and rationale for participant selection in the protocol. The target for submitting the ethics application was set before the end of that week, ahead of the April 2026 national holiday period.
The alumni survey (tracer study) strategy was one of the more indepth agenda items. The team highlighted challenges in reaching alumni due to changes in phone numbers and email addresses after graduation. Prof. Julia emphasized the importance of avoiding doublesampling bias, and it was agreed that the team will request complete alumni lists from each institution, conduct random sampling independently, and then ask the institution to contact only the selected individuals. The final alumni sampling mechanism will be described in detail in the protocol prior to submission to LMU.
Eliana ChavarrĂa also presented the project management system prepared for the PELITA team. The platform organizes tasks into the categories of ToDo, Pipeline, In Progress, and Done, with features for adding subtasks and assigning a person in charge for each work item. The team also discussed documentsharing mechanisms whether to continue via email or transition to a centralized shared folder with a decision to be made at the next meeting.
In closing, the team confirmed that the PELITA facetoface meeting will be held on June 13–17, 2026 in Surabaya. Several team members are scheduled to arrive on June 12 for preparations. Taking into account the national holiday (Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday) falling midweek, starting the meeting on Saturday, June 13 was considered more practical. Prof. Julia and Eliana will proceed to book flights in direct coordination with Prof. Rini.
The next meeting was agreed to be held two weeks later, on a Thursday or Friday in midApril 2026. Urgent updates and questions can be communicated via email, with Prof. Julia responsible for disseminating relevant information to all team members.
