Director-General of Higher Education Professor Nizam encourages UGM and all universities in Indonesia to collaborate more with industry in producing innovative products for the community. Cooperation with industry, he continued, was necessary to help realize the country’s sovereignty in technological mastery.
“It has been 26 years since we tried flying our very own plane. Apart from the gap in social transformation, we are greatly dependent on imports, such as medical devices (95%) and pharmaceutical raw materials (100%),” said Nizam in a discussion between the UGM Academic Senate and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Friday (12/11).
The low mastery in technology has caused Indonesia’s human development index to stand below the global average, 107th out of 189 countries. In addition, the country’s competitiveness level is ranked 50th out of 141 countries. Hence universities have a big responsibility to improve Indonesia’s current state.
“If we still depend on imports, the universities are the ones who are the most at fault. The country’s future leaders of outstanding, creative, and competitive attributes are in our hands,” said Nizam.
UGM Rector Professor Panut Mulyono said UGM would increase basic science research, social sciences and humanities research, and multidisciplinary research. Currently, health and science & technology fields dominate research due to their utilizable products.
“Research in social sciences and humanities is crucial for policy recommendation. Policy enforcement must suit the nature and culture of society. In addition, we have to facilitate research in basic science to increase the chance to find breakthroughs. Hopefully, there will be Nobel laureates from UGM one day who can develop new theories to advance science,” said Panut.
Author: Gusti Grehenson