Prof Abidin Kusno (top right frame) from York Univeristy, Canada delivers material on the concept of time-against-time in architecture

ITS Campus, ITS News – To improving the quality of Indonesian higher education and expanding ITS international network, ITS held a Virtual Public Lecture (VPL). Themed People to People Relationship, the event initiated by the Education & Culture Attaché of the Indonesian Embassy in Washington DC, the Rector Assembly of Indonesian State Universities (MRPTNI), and the International Association of Indonesian Scientists (I-4) of the United States and Canada began on Saturday (9/26).

VPL is a series of cooperation programs between diaspora in the United States and Canada in order to strengthen Indonesian higher education. This virtual guest lecture activity is an ongoing activity to achieve greater activities in the next year, namely university to university cooperation.

This virtual guest lecture series consists of several large theme clusters. Its superior achievements make ITS trusted to be the coordinator of public universities (PTN) throughout Indonesia. This hero campus is trusted to be a coordinator in engineering and architecture cluster, Urban Planning, Design from a total of 17 clusters.

VPL P2P 2020 participants in Zoom platformIn order to meet the main objectives, this virtual lecture activity also invited representatives from 115 public universities (PTN) throughout Indonesia that have majors in line with the theme this time. Representatives from each PTN will join through Zoom media and can interact directly with resource persons. This activity is also displayed directly on Facebook social media as well as Youtube channel, so that all universities involved can benefit from VPL activities.

ITS Directorate of Global Partnerships was appointed as the event organizer to support one of these internationalization activities. The event, which successfully invited more than 300 participants from all over Indonesia, will take place during 11 meetings held in parallel every Saturday, until December 19, 2020. Lecturers from renowned universities in the United States and Canada are specifically invited to share knowledge and insights on the different themes raised each week.

ITS Global Partnership Director Dr Maria Anityasari ST ME hopes that VPL activities can improve critical thinking skills, solve problems, as well as the ability to understand the latest issues of students in their fields. Not only that, Maria hopes that ITS can play an active role in improving the quality of education at the national level. “We hope ITS can be a pioneer in the development of higher education in Indonesia,” she said.

Bambang Pramujati ST MSc Eng PhD when opening VPL P2P 2020

Vice Rector IV of Research, Innovation, Cooperation, and Kealumnian ITS Bambang Pramujati ST MSc Eng PhD who attended the opening of the event said, this activity is a manifestation of the blessings hidden in the pandemic. Admittedly, if this pandemic does not happen, it is difficult to realize the event because the speakers are on different continents.

In his speech, the Lecturer of Department of Mechanical Engineering hoped that this activity could encourage further cooperation both with top universities in the United States and in Canada. Collaboration between universities such as joint research, student exchange, and double degree can be done to improve the quality of universities. “So that this good relationship can be established until the university to university program is carried out,” he said.

(aje/Anjani/ITS Public Relation Officer)