University of Groningen has visited Universitas Gadjah Mada on Tuesday (1/11). Both parties would sign a Memoradum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) related to cooperations between ASEAN Studies Center UGM and Groningen Research Center for Southeast Asia and ASEAN.
Signing of the agreement was done by Prof. dr. S. (Sibrand) Poppema, President of University of Groningen, and Prof. Ir. Dwikorita Karnawati, M.Sc., Ph.D., Rector of Universitas Gadjah Mada at the Conference Room UGM.
In his remarks, President of University of Groningen appreciated the renewed cooperations that had been started back to 30 years ago. Prof. Poppema further explained the role of university in forming the character of students. He said that higher learning not only produce leaders for their own nations. “Universities have to produce leaders that can become a global level leaders to advance the world ,” said Prof. Poppema.
Furthermore, University of Groningen wants to be a global level university, so UGM is expected to be the door for University of Groningen to establish further cooperation with ASEAN universities,” he said, adding that “University of Groningen becomes the door for UGM to Europe,” he said.
Similarly, Rector of UGM, Prof. Ir. Dwikorita Karnawati, said the cooperation between the two parties would improve UGM capabilities to keep pace with science and technology developments.
“Many things need to be learned by UGM to increase its quality, particularly in energy sector that has been done by University of Groningen,” said Prof. Dwikorita.