Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and the State Islamic University (UIN) of North Sumatra have agreed to collaborate in education, research, community service, and the Merdeka Belajar–Kampus Merdeka program.
The collaboration agreement was formalized by a memorandum of understanding signed by the Vice-Rector for Cooperation and Institutional Development of UIN North Sumatra, Professor H. Muzakir, and the Vice-Rector for Human Resources and Finance of UGM, Professor Supriyadi.
Professor Muzakir mentioned that at 50, UIN North Sumatra remains dynamic in facing challenges and improving from the previous leadership by fixing and seeking collaboration opportunities.
“We have eight faculties and one postgraduate program, with nearly 40 thousand students and 6 thousand new students yearly. Regarding this collaboration plan, it generally involves the tri-dharma of higher education. Currently, we are promoting joint research in religion and science,” said Vice-Rector Muzakir at UGM on Monday (November 13).
He stated that UIN North Sumatra is preparing to establish the Faculty of Medicine. In 2024, his university targets accreditation and aims to achieve excellent accreditation. Therefore, one of the efforts is to build collaboration with other institutions such as UGM, Bandung Institute of Technology, Airlangga University, and Bogor Agricultural Institute.
“We continue to promote internationalization programs for foreign students. Many from Malaysia have studied at UIN North Sumatra. In 2024, we hope to have students from Singapore and Cambodia,” said Vice-Rector Muzakir.
“This is a target because it is one of the accreditation requirements: how many foreign students can be recruited. Another hope is a joint Community Service Program between UGM and UIN North Sumatra.”
Vice-Rector Supriyadi stated that UGM currently has 18 faculties and two schools with a total number of students reaching 55 thousand, and every year it accepts around 10 thousand new students. Of all undergraduate and postgraduate programs, 17 programs have implemented international programs.
“In international programs, we also collaborate with several foreign universities, and collaboration in the simplest form is through exchange programs to dual-degree programs,” he said.
Professor Supriyadi, representing UGM, welcomed this collaboration, which is expected to bring the best benefits to both parties.
He acknowledged that previous collaborations had been running between the two unis, such as in the library field, and this program ended in 2019. Therefore, he hopes the new partnership will impact and optimize several previous collaboration programs.
“With this MoU, we hope everything will run smoothly, at least with the Graduate School in the tri-dharma program for interreligious studies, joint research, student and lecturer exchanges, and dual-degree programs. I think everything is very open,” he added.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Photographer: Firsto