The resource person for the event was Dr. Totok Prasetyo, B.Eng., MT., the Director of Higher Education Institutional Development at the Kemenristekdikti. He presented material entitled “2019 Higher Education Ranking and Clustering” and “Weighting of Ranking Components and New Components of 2019 Ranking”. In addition to Dr. Totok, another speaker was Dr. Anang Kurnia, S.Si., M.Si., who is a member of the Higher Education Classification and Ranking Team in Indonesia. The titles of the material he presented were “Indicators and Calculation Methods for Student Affairs Components” and “Indicators and Calculation Methods for Innovation Components”
The Chairperson of the USU Board of Professors, Prof. dr. Gontar Alamsyah Siregar, Sp.PD., KGEH., in his speech, said that to advance USU five aspects must be considered, namely regarding institutions, student affairs, publications, innovation, and research.
“USU’s struggle to enter cluster one in the university ranking is very difficult. However, we must remain enthusiastic and continue to fight. Hopefully what we hope for can be realized in this year’s assessment,” said Prof. Gontar.
Meanwhile, the USU Chancellor, on the same occasion expressed his gratitude to the speakers from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education who were present to deliver material related to the Ranking of Higher Education Institutions in Indonesia. The Chancellor hopes that the problems or obstacles faced by the USU Ranking Team last year can be overcome in 2019. Thus, USU’s ideals to be included in cluster one of the ranking of higher education institutions in Indonesia can be realized. He is optimistic that this desire can be fulfilled considering the growth in the number of innovative products and the increasing number of patents produced.
“The number of our patent applications is still high, the Scopus ranking has also increased from rank 11 to rank 10. For this achievement, I would like to express my gratitude for the enthusiasm and hard work that has been done for USU,” said the Chancellor.
In his explanation, Dr. Totok Prasetyo said that innovation plays a very large role in assessing the ranking of higher education institutions.
“Since 2015, USU should have been able to enter cluster one, so that it can enter the QS World University Rankings. Because various supporting devices are already in place. Unfortunately, the number of international students owned by USU is still lacking to meet the world-class assessment. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is ranked 1st in the world, the number of international students is 70 percent of the total number of students it has. Meanwhile, 60 percent of its study programs are postgraduate,” said Dr. Totok.
“Entering the top world university assessment can increase the dignity and self-esteem of the nation. In addition, with the many foreign students who continue their studies at our universities, it will encourage an increase in state revenue from the education sector,” he added.
Dr. Totok gave the example of Australia, one of the countries that has a large income in the education sector. “More than 23 percent of Australia’s income comes from the education sector. Many foreign students enter and study in Australia. If they are only tourists, they can only earn money for a few days. Meanwhile, foreign students can stay for years,” he said. According to him, based on existing data, currently, there are 15 thousand international students spread across various universities in Indonesia.
