Universitas Islam Indonesia

On Thursday, 19th August, Universitas Islam Indonesia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bangalore Management Academy in India. This is part of UII’s continuing development of overseas cooperation agreements, in order to improve the competence of UII colleges and graduates alike. The signing was conducted by UII Rector, Prof Dr Edy Suandi Hamid, and the CEO of the BMA, Mr Mahendra Chandra, and took place at the Rectorate Building, UII Integrated Campus. Also in attendance were the UII Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Prof Dr Hadri Kusuma, and the Head of International Program of the Faculty of Economics at UII, Drs Anas Hidayat, MBA, PhD, as well as several other staff from UII, as well as Patricia Kelly from the BMA.

IP Chairman Hidayat outlined the details of cooperation agreement. ‘In the future, the partnership will take the form of direct exchange, with the IP preparing UII students to go to the BMA’. He added that there will be no limit to the number of students who will be sent as a result of the agreement.

Like several previous partnership agreements, this arrangement also includes aspects such as student and faculty exchanges and joint research projects. However, this MoU goes further, encompassing two more cooperation programs to be realized in the initial stage, namely the Short Course Program for one semester, including an industry internship, and the Dual Degree Program.

For the Dual Degree program, students will each take eight courses offered by the BMA and Edith Cowan University in Australia. Students will also undertake a 3-4 day briefing in Singapore, gaining certification from the Singapore Human Resource Institute. After two years of study at the BMA, students will also receive certification from Edith Cowan University upon graduation.

The Chairman of the IP expressed his optimism that future students will have more opportunities for study abroad, and improve their competence through various cooperative programs.

So far, the Faculty of Economics’ International Program has conducted cooperation partnerships with several other universities abroad, being most active in establishing and developing international cooperation. UII Rector Hamid expressed his appreciation to the IP, illustrating some of the achievements already realized by the department. ‘In the future, we will encourage all faculties to undertake initiatives such as these’, he said.

In addressing the media in attendance at the signing, UII Rector Hamid explained that this cooperation was initiated by the Faculty of Economics’ International Program, but that other UII faculties were also welcome to take part. ‘This partnership encompasses the entire university, so other UII faculties are also covered under this agreement’, he said.

The UII Rector also expects that this cooperation will extend far beyond the signing of the manuscript. ‘We will continue to give support and encouragement to each unit, within the framework of institutional cooperation such as this’, he said.

The process of signing the MoU took about 20 minutes, with warm-hearted dialogue taking place afterwards between the BMA and UII representatives, and the assembled media.