UGM and the State Electricity Company (PLN) agreed to educate professional electrical engineers to anticipate increasing production and electricity needs. That matter was stated in the MoU between UGM and the company which was signed on Monday (14/9) at the Leadership Meeting Room, UGM.
The Human Resources and Public Affairs Director of PT PLN, Dr. Ir. Supriyadi, M.M., M.B.A., said that Indonesia still needs science-oriented electricity production. The increasing electricity production is not only focused on the industry, therefore a synergy needs to be formed with others to speed up the process. “We need engineering- expert graduates as well as experts in social sciences, environment, law, micro-economics and macro- economics,†he explained.
< br />
He added that the cooperation between UGM and PT PLN Persero is a long term investment to educate Indonesian electrical engineers and to implement strategic ideas that will come up after the cooperation. The same statement was also delivered by the Rector of UGM, Prof. Ir. Sudjarwadi, M.Eng., Ph.D. One of challenges is to broaden the knowledge by improving access for Indonesian youths at the age between 17- 21 years old to study at universities. The current figure is still 18 %. The government planned to increase that number to 25 % by 2014. “We believe that the main important resource is science. In Korea, Singapore and India, the youth participation reach up to 40%, in Korea the figure is even 90%,†he mentioned.
The Rector added that UGM with others institutions will continue to broaden knowledge in many disciplines for citizens. “We need to pay attention to education comprehensively in order that we have experts in many areas.â€