USU PR - Strengthening the campus internationalization program, Rector of Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) Prof. Dr. Muryanto Amin, S.Sos, M.Si, attended an invitation from a university in China to establish academic collaboration, Monday - Tuesday (6-7/11/2023). This cooperation visit is also to introduce USU at the international level, especially in a country with a population of around 1,411,750,000 people (2023).

USU Rector Prof. Muryanto Amin explained that this series of visits was a follow-up to the cooperation that had been established previously with HK Haibin Education Group Limited China. On this return visit, the rector visited Yantai Nanshan University (YNU) which was founded by Nanshan Holding, Shandong Nanshan Aluminum Co., Ltd., which is the largest aluminum industry in China and Yantai University (YU) which is one of the state universities collaborating between Peking University and Tsinghua University in 1984.

The USU Rector and his entourage also held a working meeting with HK Haibin Education Group Limited China which has a very extensive network of cooperation with universities in China and has also consistently carried out partnerships with well-known universities in Indonesia.

During his visit to the Yantai Nanshan University Campus, Shandong Province, China, the USU Rector was received by university leaders consisting of Prof. Dr. Yang Wanli (YNU President), Prof. Xu Yugou (Vice President), Prof. Tang Libo (Associate Vice President & Provost) and other YNU officials. YNU, founded in 1988 by Nanshan Holdings, one of the Top 500 Companies in China, has 55 Undergraduate Study Programs, 69 Departments and 12 Schools with 30,000 undergraduate students and 1,500 lecturers. With a land area of 228 Ha and a total of laboratory equipment worth RMB135 Million (Rp.289,920,600,000), YNU has become a strategic partner for USU to collaborate and increase USU's academic capacity through various activities such as Joint Master Degree and joint research activities.

"A verbal agreement has been reached so that USU and YNU can carry out a global partnership, namely creating a Joint Master Degree Program. USU lecturers will be invited to teach at YNU and research using YNU facilities. USU and YNU will also conduct matching between researchers and joint research which is expected to form a Center for Excellence in science and technology in both universities that focuses on advanced technologies such as aluminum processing technology. Likewise, YNU students are invited to conduct an International Summer Course at USU," said the rector.

The USU Rector together with the USU Vice Rector for Asset and Business Management, Dr. Ir. Luhut Sihombing, MP, Director of Internationalization and Global Partnerships, Prof. Dr. Eng. Himsar Ambarita, ST, MT and Director of Digitalization and System Integration, Dr. Emerson Pascaswira Sinulingga, ST, M.Sc., then visited and accessed the largest aluminum processing technology facility in China owned by Shandong Nanshan Aluminum Co., Ltd. (Nanshan Group) which will build a bauxite processing smelter in the Bintan region with an investment value of US$5 billion (around Rp54.9 trillion).

"With this visit we hope to achieve cooperation so that USU has a strong research capacity, an academic atmosphere that is thick with applied technology to industry which will ultimately produce graduates who are ready to work in industries that require skilled graduates, especially in industries that are the result of foreign capital investment," said Prof. Mury.

The USU Rector's series of working visits to China was then continued with a meeting at Yantai University located in Yanta, Shandong Province, China. The USU team was received by its highest leaders Prof. Song Zhongmin, and Mr. Wu Hongjun along with all other YU leaders. YU itself wants to develop cooperation with universities in ASEAN and has collaborated with Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines but has not yet established cooperation with universities in Indonesia. So YU is interested in collaborating with USU as the first partner in Indonesia

Author: Bambang Riyanto - Humas

Interviewee: - - -

Photographer: Muhammad Andriansyah - Humas