USU PR - The Rector of the Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) Dr. Muryanto Amin, S.Sos., M.Si., invited members of the media partners in the gathering event which was held on Sunday (12/26/2021). On that occasion, Muryanto Amin explained the achievements achieved by USU. Also present accompanying USU Head of Public Relations, Promotion and Protocol Amalia Meutia, M.Psi., Psychologist.

Muryanto Amin explained that throughout 2021, USU has made many transformations. He said, in carrying the tagline "Transformation towards the Ultimate", USU has implemented a major and comprehensive transformation in every aspect of university services.

"The internationalization program that is being prepared by USU to accelerate the process towards this ideal design has been rolled out and is being implemented through 6 Priority Programs, namely Revitalizing Institutional and Adaptive Governance, Adapting Tri-Dharma Tasks, Infrastructure Arrangement, Campus Digitalization, Campus Enterprise, and Cooperation. It is hoped that this priority program will accelerate the realization of USU's development in the following years," said the USU Rector.

As stated in the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan, USU has an ideal design to achieve, namely USU becoming an international standard university characterized by local excellence. One of the derivatives of this plan is to make USU ranked among the world's 500 best universities (World Class University).

In the academic field, USU improves the ability to digitize the learning process through a hybrid learning process and facilitates the creation of collaborative and participatory classes. "In the field of research and community service, what is being encouraged is to increase applied research through research groups with appropriate TKT to achieve downstreaming," he said.

On the other hand, USU also encourages scientific products produced by USU to have commercialization value by involving the industry in sharing funding and experiences that benefit both parties.

"To accelerate the implementation of this transformation, it is hoped that the role of USU Professors as leaders in cultivating scientific developments on the USU Campus will have an impact on offering practical solutions to social problems and public policies by strategic industries as well as government and community institutions," he explained.

USU has also started to build new strengths by optimizing all the potential of lecturers and professors in facing challenges in the field of research. This is in response to the Ministry of Education and Culture's policy which has set three research themes that will receive funding priorities, namely the blue economy, green economy, and digital/artificial intelligence themes.

“The challenge is to produce scientific products that have downstream value and commercialization, in addition to journal publications and books that meet the requirements for use by the public or receive international recognition. One way is to increase cooperation with the industrial world," he explained.

Speaking of the MBKM's first priority program, USU has deconstructed, recognized, and relaxed the learning curriculum so that it is no longer conventional. The trick is to invite practitioner lecturers and the industrial world to provide best experiences to students so that they can adapt more quickly to problems that are very difficult to predict in real life in society.

“The curriculum is no longer relevant if it is considered as a tree of knowledge, because nowadays every human and natural problem must use approaches from various disciplines. The curriculum must be seen as an ecosystem that influences each other to maintain the balance of life," he said.

USU is in the middle of initiating a design for the operation of open classrooms, so that all scientific developments using a multi-disciplinary approach can provide answers to people's difficulties.

The Rector said that the important goal to be achieved is that USU graduates are able to compete in a healthy manner, provide energy and thoughts to overcome humanitarian problems and contribute to the progress of Indonesia.

"Graduates from the Universitas Sumatera Utara will be quickly absorbed in the world of work and provide welfare for themselves and the surrounding community. Therefore, the transformation of teaching is carried out to complement the way USU lecturers carry out teaching tasks," the Rector said.

The second priority program is matching funds through the Kedai Reka platform. Every rupiah that the company gives to universities for applied research will be given an equivalent by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Applied research will be designed by lecturers and professors at the Universitas Sumatera Utara so that scientific works such as innovation can be quickly occupied by industry.

Collaboration of the Universitas Sumatera Utara with local, national and international industries continues to be massive. Every lecturer or professor from one university who has the results of applied research will compete with the results of applied research from lecturers and professors from other universities. Appraisers of applied research who have advantages or are very competitive come from industries that meet the standardization criteria very well and have high economic value. Therefore, the Universitas Sumatera Utara will continue to increase the theme of applied research based on research groups and collaborate with industry. This is what is called the transformation of research at the Universitas Sumatera Utara," he explained.

This transformation is part of a series of policies at the Universitas Sumatera Utara so that the achievement of the Main Performance Indicators can meet the gold standard in order to make it easier for USU to be aligned with international standard universities, so lecturers are expected to increase collaboration with universities that are included in the 100 QS WUR.

"Therefore, it is very important to collaborate through staff exchange programs such as sabbatical leave, joint research, joint publications, and inviting foreign lecturers to share knowledge and share experiences in teaching, research, and publication activities," he continued.

The third transformation is in the field of community service, namely community service programs that are planned for outcomes that can provide clear and measurable economic added value for the welfare of the community. The Universitas Sumatera Utara community service model must target the KPI 5 (Key Performance Indicator 5) that the lecturers' work is used by the community or gets international recognition. For example, the form of Assisted Village activities carried out by Lecturers must produce a special learning project with clear and measurable measurements to increase the welfare of the community in the village. The three examples of transformation will be carried out in a series of policies at the Universitas Sumatera Utara so that the achievement of the Key Performance Indicators can be met. (©ULC)

Author: Roni Hikmah Ramadhan - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Amri Simatupang - Humas