USU PR - The Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) mapped out areas of university excellence to strengthen the internationalization program that had been initiated since the early leadership of USU Rector Dr. Muryanto Amin.

"Currently USU's ranking in the QS Ranking is at 1201, we will start in 2020 and strengthen it in 2021. If traced back, USU is actually just starting to step up internationalization compared to other universities," said USU Rector Dr. Muryanto Amin when speaking at the World Class Professor which was held online, Tuesday (11/2/2021).

The Rector explained that in the mapping that has been carried out there are at least five university advantages that can be used as capital, namely excellence in the fields of Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Business, Management, and Accounting, Environmental Science, Biochemistry, Genetics, and Molecular Biology and Earth and Planetary Sciences.

USU superiority in this field is based on the number of citations and scientific journals that are widely referenced by other researchers. The field of Agricultural and Biological Sciences, for example, was ranked 445 in the world ranking, 133 in the Asian ranking and first in the Indonesian ranking.

“With the mapping that we do, we can focus on improving what areas are our priorities going forward. We will push it so that this advantage becomes the hallmark of USU in treading internationalization," he said.

The Rector explained that after mapping, there is a long-term strategy that needs to be realized. This strategy is important for equalizing perceptions and collaborating on internal campus programs.

Among these strategies are strengthening international collaboration in the field of education, fostering strong collaboration with graduate users, improving research quality, expanding access for USU researchers to perform at the internationalized level, promoting their work at national and international levels.

"Then designing double and joint degree programs, designing a scheme to employ full time foreign lecturers and to provide doctoral scholarships by research for foreign students," he said.

The Rector hopes that there will be strong efforts from the lecturers at USU to be willing to change the concept of conventional learning to be more attractive and innovative, especially balancing teaching, research and community service.

“As lecturers we must at least produce quality research once a year. Quality research is marked by outputs that are able to contribute to campus internationalization, quality outputs can be marked by patents, prototypes can be downstreamed, and so forth," he said.

The Rector emphasized that the campus internationalization program is not only a university program, but must also be understood and supported by the lecturers at USU.

“I also advise lecturers who graduate from abroad to re-establish communication with their universities so that collaboration can be established. So the success of this program is determined by the understanding of the lecturers regarding internationalization and involving students in the research carried out," he said.

The Rector emphasized that the internationalization program every year will be a concern for universities to continue to be socialized and encourage lecturers and students to take part in the national and international spheres and the target of internationalization in 2025 can be achieved. (©ULC)

Author: Bambang Riyanto - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Irsan Mulyadi - Humas