Unhas together with 15 other universities in Indonesia who are members of the Nationwide University Network in Indonesia (NUNI) attended the NUNI Presidential Forum and Annual Meeting which was held at Satya Wacana Christian University (UKSW) for 2 days, October 05-06, 2022. This Presidential Forum and Annual Meeting raised the theme “Building Synergy and Collaboration in the Spirit of Diversity” and was held in the form of discussions to evaluate and plan joint NUNI activities.
The meeting was attended by UKSW Rector Neil Semuel Rupidara, S.E., M.Sc., Ph.D., as the Keynote Speaker, Assistant Rector IV for Institutional Cooperation and Internationalization Joseph Ernest Mambu, S.Pd., M.A., Ph.D., and Head of the Bureau of Cooperation and International Relations Neny Isharyanti, Ph.D., as delegates from UKSW. Also present were the Rector of Bina Nusantara University (Binus) Prof. Dr. Ir. Harjanto Prabowo, M.M., as the leader of the NUNI Presidential Forum, Binus Collaboration Center Manager Theodora Subyantoro, S.Psi., M.Si., as the moderator, as well as delegation representatives and leaders of each university.
In his keynote speech, Neil Rupidara welcomed the delegates to the campus known as Indonesia Mini. “Hopefully this meeting will add insights and strategic thoughts as well as collaborations that we can produce for the progress of the nation through this NUNI network,” he said. In addition, Neil Rupidara also explained the challenges faced in running NUNI’s programs, namely Faculty Mobility, Student Mobility, and Research Collaboration. One of the challenges faced is the huge gap in the quantity of research from universities in Indonesia, especially NUNI members, with research conducted by international universities abroad.
Similarly, Vice Rector I for Academic and Student Affairs of Padjajaran University Prof. Arief S. Kartasasmita, dr., Sp.M(K)., M.Kes, Ph.D., also mentioned that research collaboration accompanied by maximizing human resources and potential can be done to answer the existing challenges. This was also supported by the statement of Bina Nusantara (BINUS) Rector Prof. Dr. Ir. Joseph Stanislaus Harjanto Prabowo, M.M., who was present online, and said that academic collaboration is very possible through NUNI. Meanwhile, Vice Rector for Academic Development & Research Prof. Dr. Jaka Nugraha, S.Si., M.Si., invited the delegates to provide a platform for lecturers who have a passion for research.
NUNI Secretariat and Director of BINUS Global Diah Wihardini, B.Sc. (Hons), M.Ed., Ph.D., explained NUNI’s programs which include Faculty Mobility, Student Mobility and Research Collaboration and guided the delegates to choose universities that will become committees in each program. In addition to these three programs, a global reputation program will also be added which will be the future design of NUNI.
On this occasion, the delegates had the opportunity to discuss the proposed programs that could be worked on in each committee. The discussion was divided into four groups that discussed one type of NUNI program that has been running or will be running. Some of the plans include joint research, research grants for each university, joint publications, workshops and others.
Meanwhile, the Student Mobility program design includes Cross Cultural EduCross Cultural Education Program, NUNI community engagement, and others. Faculty Mobility also has a different proposal, namely by collecting data for educators who are ready to participate in lecturer exchanges. Global reputation also has proposals for research management in order to improve global reputation, and publication storefronts, namely the development of publication data which will be useful for cross-teaching and sharing. For research and innovation, research will be held in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), Non-STEM and Humanities and carried out with data collection and databases.
“After this meeting, the NUNI delegates are expected to attend a meeting in Jakarta which is scheduled for November 21, 2022, to sign the NUNI deed,” said Diah.
