HUMAS USU - Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) held a graduation ceremony on 6-7 February 2023 for Period II of the 2022/2023 Academic Year at USU Auditorium Building. A total of 1,672 graduates were inaugurated in the graduation procession, which took the theme "World Class University: Strengthening Employer Reputation of University of North Sumatra Alumni".

USU Rector, Dr Muryanto Amin. S.Sos., M.Si, in his speech, said that there are two significant roles that must be carried out by Higher Education, namely being a place of human resource development for its own country and as a centre for the creation and dissemination of new knowledge for society as a whole.

One of the measures used as an indicator to determine these two roles in the world-class university assessment is the number of graduates who provide a professional quality employee reputation that is highly valued by the industry.

"If asked simply, how useful are USU alumni to industrial interests or provide economic progress to achieve human welfare continuously? The answer to this question, objectively, can only be given by industry players or people who are in strategic decision-making," he added.

Following the reference to the results of USU's internal evaluation, quantitatively and qualitatively at the end of 2022, it was concluded that 89% of industry players were satisfied with the performance of USU graduates. While as many as 11% expressed dissatisfaction.

Most of the answers provided by industry players put USU graduates in the first layer of consideration for potential employment or collaboration in some of their priority programmes.

"Another important consideration for industry players is the standardisation applied by USU in managing the education process to produce alumni. Industry players also stated that graduates from internationally accredited study programmes would get more rewards, such as salaries and other income, compared to those not internationally accredited," he said.

Based on this data, USU has developed a priority programme, International Class, which will serve as an example of the learning process using international requirements.

"The international class is intended as the lowest base to improve and increase the quality of integrative learning that can be accessed easily, using digital platforms and easy to monitor. This process will produce inclusive education from USU for the people," he said.

Based on the employer reputation assessment, the Rector explained that USU experienced an increase in 2022, which was 3.9 or was in the Top 451 Universities in Asia or the world's top 1,201. This measure is a vital assessment basis for industry players to consider USU alumni.

"We will continue to collaborate with industries through education, research, and community service activities to improve the assessment and faith of the industrial world in USU. However, the most important thing USU is currently doing is that it will continue to have discussions with various world ranking agencies about the right way and the speed needed to implement international standards of providing inclusive education," he emphasised.

USU’s Achievement in 2023

Rector explained that in 2023 iUSU achieved BAN-PT accreditation of Unggul (equivalent to A), ranked 1,200-1,400 QS WUR, 451 QS AUR, 1,500 THE WUR, ranked 12 Webometrics of state universities in Indonesia, and various other achievements that are continuously improved.

"We must take this achievement as a sign of optimism that USU, located in North Sumatra, will be able to jump higher and be recognised by the world, producing the children of the nation to achieve their dreams of prosperity," he explained.

In today's graduation ceremony, a message of optimism is essential for all graduates not to hesitate to venture into getting a job or carry out their profession in a very tough competition. Nowadays, independent institutions continuously watch and warn us all to always be open in delivering the Tri Darma services of Higher Education.

"As the rector, I hope that (alumni) will always provide information related to (their) activities in the professional workplace after today's graduation by utilising the Tracer Study platform of Universitas Sumatera Utara. Always continue to access usu.ac.id and tracerstudy.usu.ac.id because it is beneficial for Universitas Sumatera Utara in recording the development of alumni, which is one of the indicators of university reputation assessment in WCU," he concluded.

Master's student of Political Science, Ishaq Abrar Mustafa Tarigan, who was interviewed after the graduation procession, hoped that the relationship between lecturers, alumni, and students, even after dropping their status as students, can still be well established.

"Hopefully, the relationship between lecturers and students, as well as lecturers and alumni, will be improved in the future," said Ishaq Abrar Mustafa Tarigan.

Another graduate, Vetra Sarah Eklesia Br. Sitompul conveyed that the nuances and concepts of this year's graduation was different from previous graduations that Master Students of the Public Health Science Study Programme had experienced. Vetra also hopes that USU will be more advanced and have better accreditation.

"Hopefully, USU will be even more advanced and successful. May lecturers and students will continue to work together, lecturers can make it easier for students to graduate from college to get graduation so that parents can be happy," explained Vetra Sarah Eklesia Br. Sitompul.

For information, USU graduates in this period consisted of 637 (38.10%) men and 1,035 (61.90%) women. To date, the number of USU graduates is 243,508 people. Among these graduates, several people managed to graduate with Cumlaude honours.

Author: Bambang Riyanto - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Amri Simatupang - Humas