Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia is soon to open two schools where students will learn how to break into buildings, hack into computers, and bug phones, among other unusual skills.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri broke ground yesterday for what might be called the world's first Spy Us. One is being built in Batam Island and the other in Sentul, West Java, not far from the nation's capital.

When they open in about 10 months, they will award formal bachelor's and master's degrees in what is being described as "intelligence science".

The country's State Intelligence Agency head, Mr Hendropriyono, said in Batam on Tuesday: "Indonesia will be the first country to open institutions offering such degrees. Realising the increasing security threats around the world, we have to respond to the problems by formulating the art of intelligence as a science." Students are expected to come from the military and government, as well as other fields.

Subjects will include information technology as well as espionage activities, and will be taught primarily in English.

Two of the country's best known institutions of higher learning, the University of Indonesia (UI) and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), will help develop programmes for the spy colleges. The 10-hectare school on Batam will include a firing range, a gymnasium and a 50-m swimming pool, the officials said.

As many as 100 students now enrolled at UI and ITB, from Indonesia and other Asean countries, will form the first graduating class from the spy colleges.

Officials also described the schools and plans surrounding them as a way to improve the training of agents amid criticisms that the country's intelligence-gathering abilities lag behind those of other countries.