Delegations from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) attended a meeting with Universitas Indonesia (UI). Both parties discussed their matters on Thursday (13/10/2022) at Ruang Sidang on the 9th Floor of the Rectorate Building, Universitas Indonesia, Depok.
The delegations were as follows:
- Michael Lazzara as the Associate Vice Provost of UC Davis Academic Programs and Partnerships,
- Anneli Adams as the Associate Dean of the UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education, International Programs,
- Jacob Hosier as the UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education, International Programs,
- Denisa Rizkiya as the Coordinator for UC Davis Partnership Week,
The delegations were welcomed by the Head of Sub Directorate for Academic and Government Cooperation, Directorate of Partnership, Universitas Indonesia, Dr. Eko Sakapurnama, S.Psi., MBA, and moderated by the Coordinator for Partnership of International Office, Suyanti Adi Prawiro. Also attending the meeting were:
- Dr. Ir. Dedi Priadi, DEA as the Vice-Rector for Human Resources and Assets,
- Dr. rer. nat. Budiawan as the Vice Dean for Education, Research and Student Affairs, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences,
- Nyoman Suwartha, M.T., M.Agr., Ph.D. as the Associate Dean for Education, Faculty of Engineering,
- rer.pol. Romadhani Ardi as the Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Research and Community Engagement, Faculty of Engineering,
- Amelita Lusia, M.Si. as the Head of Public Relations and Public Information Office
- Gatot Fatwanto Hertono, M.Sc., Ph.D. as the Director of Academic Development and Learning Resources,
- Masita Mandasari. Ph.D., Sp.PM. as the Head of Sub-Directorate for Research Collaborative Development.
As a long-standing and the continuing partner university of UI, UC Davis has opened doors for many students to study abroad through the IISMA program and created more space for research collaborations and citations. In this meeting, UC Davis intended to further improve the foundation of the students and staff to reach their full potential in dealing with global challenges, such as the most recent one – the threat of global recess. With previous research collaborations being a success, UC Davis was positive that cooperation in the field of research and mobility will continue to flourish in the future.
UC Davis stated a few notable challenges that emerge as their priority, namely around climate change, local and global food security, and health issues. In addition to that, UC Davis also mentioned that they are committed to supporting the SDGs, mainly the 4th goal (Quality Education) with their platform for open reviews and virtual classrooms.
Furthermore, UC Davis offered potential collaboration options as a way to deepen and strengthen the cooperation between UI and UC Davis. Some of them are mobility programs such as global study programs, a 3+X Master’s Degree program, inbound seminars, and UC Education Abroad Program for outbound. In response, UI offered faculty-level collaborations in the form of research, government-funded joint publications, and Single Degree programs abroad. This notion was received positively by UC Davis, although both parties have to deal with bureaucratic challenges to agree on how the research is going to be done. UI also wanted to push the quality of staff through beneficial research collaborations through a matching fund scheme.
With both UI and UC Davis having similar partner universities, it opens up a chance for both parties to conduct a consortium. This idea was received well by UC Davis with a few notable points: the topic and form of the research need further discussion with related faculties and the topic needs to be concluded comprehensively with all of the partners to create a publication that is globally beneficial. UC Davis brought up the topic of renewable energy as one of the research focus alongside health and pandemic topics as it is in line with UC Davis’ vision to support Net Zero Emission.
Lastly, UC Davis emphasized that they are diverse and open to internationalization to break the stigma of US universities being seen as enclosed and not accepting foreigners. With that being said, UC Davis will continue to open up the potential cooperation prospects with UI to further improve both parties’ academic qualities.