The Chancellor of ITS Prof. Mochamad Ashari (left) together with ITS Vice Chancellor I Prof. Heru Setyawan

ITS Campus, ITS News – In the past few years, the world of education has faced the challenges of globalization. To prepare human resources for these challenges, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) prepared two new programs, namely the international class and fast track program.

The ASEAN Economic Community (MEA) and the discourse of the establishment of foreign universities are the two main issues that portray the world of Indonesian education. For this reason, ITS Vice Chancellor I for Academic and Student Affairs, Prof. Dr. Ir Heru Setyawan MEng, felt that ITS must prepare its students to face these challenges in the future. “For this reason, the two new programs will be implemented by ITS starting next semester,” he explained, Friday (5/24).

For the international class, Heru continued, this program will be applied to 16 study programs in all ITS starting from the 2019/2020 school year. Later the class will take place with an overall introduction to English. With a maximum capacity of 30 people, foreign and local students can only enter this class through independent selection, with registration starting in June 2019.

Beside that, this international class is also predicted to have several other advantages. Later the students will be facilitated to conduct student exchanges to overseas campuses that have established partnerships with ITS. Students who conduct exchanges who take courses on campus aim to transfer credit that is approved by ITS. “In addition, the class will be designed more modern, both from the infrastructure and teaching methods,” said the professor of Chemical Engineering.

Heru also admitted that the preparation to open this international class had been carried out long ago. Educators and administrative staff have also been trained to be ready to face this change. “We have prepared our own human resources to deal with this, including staff that we have sent abroad to study,” said the bespectacled man.

Meanwhile, the second program which will begin next year, Fast Track, is an acceleration program to get a bachelor’s and master’s degree in just five years. In this program students can start taking master’s courses in semester 6 or 7, so that after the undergraduate program is completed only need to complete the thesis for the master’s degree. “This program is also our effort to go to World Class University,” he said

Meanwhile, ITS Chancellor Prof. Dr. Ir Mochamad Ashari Meng admitted, these two programs were ITS’s answers to the public’s concern of the entry of foreign workers due to the MEA which was initiated several years ago. This program can only be implemented this year because it is considered that preparations are starting to mature.

“We must prepare resources to compete, both in terms of communication and readiness to live abroad,” he said. The program, according to the professor of Electrical Engineering, is indeed designed to be ready to face international relations in the future. (mik/herdiana/ITS PR)

The Chancellor of ITS Prof. Mochamad Ashari (left) was accompanied by ITS Vice Chancellor I Prof. Heru Setyawan (center) and Academic Director of ITS Dr. Siti Machmudah during a press conference

For further information about ITS International Undergraduate Program, could be accessed on its.ac.id/iup.