Public Relations USU - Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) received a visit from the Indonesia International Islamic University (UIII) for planning and financial governance benchmarking. This meeting was an exchange of information and experiences between the two institutions in managing finance and strategic planning in the academic environment. The activity took place at IMTGT 2nd Floor of the Rector's Bureau on Friday, (21/02/2025)

The Secretary of the USU Priority Program Evaluation Agency, Dr. Wahyu Ario Pratomo SE., M.Ec., explained that although efficiency was not the main focus of the discussion, USU had begun implementing savings in the preparation of the 2025 budget activity plan. This step aligns with the direction of the USU Rector, Prof. Dr. Muryanto Amin, S.Sos., M.Si, who emphasized that activities in the last year of his leadership must be productive and contribute directly to achieving university targets.

“The direction from the Rector is that the activities carried out in 2025 are truly productive,” Wahyu explained.

Regarding financial policies, Wahyu Ario emphasized that there is no plan to raise the Single Tuition Fee (UKT) this year. University revenue will be optimized through cooperation with external parties, grants from the local government, and the development of university businesses that are starting to move to increase income beyond UKT.

“We are not planning to increase the UKT this year,” Wahyu said.

Meanwhile, a representative of UIII's Directorate of Financial Planning, Ahmad Nawawi, S.E., M.M., revealed that the primary purpose of the visit was to benchmark USU's governance. UIII was only established in 2018 and started operating in 2020, so it still faces various challenges in institutional management. USU, one of the major universities with 42,000 students, is considered to have a governance system that can serve as a reference for UIII.

“What kind of governance we might be able to adopt some of it for us, I guess,” he said.

In addition to sharing experiences, the two institutions also opened up opportunities for further cooperation in the academic and non-academic fields. UIII is considering establishing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with USU, which will be discussed further at the university leadership level.

“It is possible that we can make an MOU with USU; it will be communicated to the top leadership later,” Ahmad said.