Tingkatkan Kualitas, SV UGM Gandeng 9 Politeknik Jepang
Tingkatkan Kualitas, SV UGM Gandeng 9 Politeknik Jepang
UGM Vocational School has partnered with 9 national polytechnics from Japan to establish a cooperation in education and research. Signing of the MoU was conducted by Rector, Prof. Dr. Pratikno, M.Soc., Sc and a delegate from Okinawa-Kyushu NCTs, Prof. Hiroshi Tsukamoto, in University Center UGM, Thursday (6/2) during the Joint Seminar hosted by UGM Vocational School and 10 National College of Technology, Japan.
"When we’re talking about Asian Century, it ‘s not apart from the current economic growth in China, India, Singapore, and Indonesia. As high as 65 percent of purchasing power is in Indonesia; this surely became a big opportunity as well as a challenge for skilled manpower,” said Rector in his remarks.
He said economic awakening in the South has taken place after for many years the economy was dominated by the North such as the U.S., the UK, Germany, and Italy while globalisation has entered all sectors massively and unavoidably.
"Globalisation and economic openess can be found in everyday lives, not only at the malls or supermarkets, but also street vendors,” he said.
To deal with such situation, said Pratikno, Indonesia needs to change its education composition by increasing the number of vocational schools, making the ratio 40:60 for high schools and middle level vocational schools. "It’s because the private sector will get more open as well as promising, we need to win the competition against skilled human resources from abroad,” he added.
Director of UGM Vocational School, Ir. Hotma Prawoto Sulistyadi MT IP-Md, added with over 9000 active students (new students between 2500 – 3000 annually), the School became a big unit that has a strategic role in building Indonesia.
For Prof. Hiroshi Tsukamoto, the Okinawa-Kyushu NCTs delegate, the international cooperation became important for the young engineering students. In the future, globalisation will get more extensive, hence international collaboration is required. "Improving their skills in communication and presentation, leadership and problem solving will become a very important tool in preparing themselves as future operators,” said Hiroshi Tsukamoto.
Hiroshi hoped the cooperation would encourage students to have experiences abroad. After the existing student exchange, the next program is to give students a more effective education.
“As many as nine NCTs (Kosens) in Kyushu and Okinawa will collaborate and promote programs, training abroad and credit transfer with Asian institutes, including UGM," said Hiroshi.