Master's Program in Road Management and Engineering Engineering and Development was established at the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in 1982 at the graduate level to help meet the growing need for advanced highway and traffic engineering education in Indonesia with an emphasis on developmental aspects. This was a result of cooperation between the Indonesian Department of Public Works, Directorate General of Highways (Bina Marga) and the post graduate school (Fakultas Pascasarjana at that time) at ITB. Funding had been largely from a World Bank Highway Loan to Indonesia and from the Overseas Development Administration of the British Government and the Directorate General Bina Marga. At the time of its establishment the Program was run by ITB staff from the Department of Civil Engineering, assisted as necessary by staff from other departments. Assistance, in the form of expatriate academic personnel, had been given to the Program since 1982 by a series of management arrangements, although there had been broad continuity of senior expatriate academic staff throughout. The original external university support was provided by the University College London until 1986, and then continued by the University of Leeds in UK.
The Program evolved with a gradual reduction in expatriate staff inputs to a sustaining level. The bulk of program teaching, except in specific advanced or new subject material, was undertaken by ITB staff. However, in the research component of the program, a significant and important role continued to be undertaken by the expatriate staff, but with gradually increasing responsibility being undertaken by the ITB staff. To assist in this development, ITB staff studied for higher degrees in related subjects at overseas universities in the UK and elsewhere.
Up until now the program has a good working relationship with Bina Marga. A number of staff members from Bina Marga have contributed to the program on a regular basis. A good working relationship also exists between ITB and the Indonesian Institute of Road Engineering (Puslitbang Jalan), with whom research consultations have taken place, and the facilities of which are sometimes used for some student research projects. Plans are in hand to include the possibility of encouraging students from other developing countries, particularly those within the region, to join the program.
Some important research that was carried out in the Highway Engineering program has led to significant input into, or have formed the basis of other projects, in particular, work on pavement material engineering and research leading to the development of an Indonesian Manual on Highway and Traffic Engineering. The external management of the Program attracted an international award "The 1991 IBM Award for Sustained Development".