University Al-Azhar Indonesia (UAI) and Daugavpils University (DU) have shared a tight relationship with one another since 2021. The collaboration was initially started with one of UAI’s students from the Biology Department who was selected by Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) 2021 of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia. She was given the opportunity to do an exchange student program internationally and got accepted at DU, Latvia. After her successful study there, the cooperation between the two universities has advanced by signing an agreement of cooperation in staff and student mobility programs under Erasmus+. In May 2023, UAI sent its three staff from the Institute for Research and Community Service, Directorate of Administration and Academic Facilities, and Office of International Affairs to participate in DU International Week for International Staff Training and Teaching Week 2023 with the theme “Sustainable Development Goals in Practice from May 8 to May 13, 2023”. In response to this, UAI invited the delegations of DU who are represented by Janis Kudins (Vice-Rector for Development), Rita Baltere (CFO – Head of Finance and Administration Department), Anna Vanaga (Head of Science Department), Zaiga Vītola (Project manager of Science Department – in Charge of EU Funded Programmes), Olita Miglane (Senior rapporteur of Science Department – in Charge of Internal Science Programmes), and Liene Leikuma-Rimicane (Senior Specialist for Cooperation Issues and International and Public Relations Office) to attend UAI International Week in Biotechnology 2023 from November 12 to 18 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Monday (13/11), all the delegates from DU who were accompanied by Dr. rer. nat. Yunus Effendi, S.Pd., M.Si., M.Sc. (Head of Institute for Research and Community Service and Empowerment of UAI), Ir. Hidayat Yorianta Sasaerila, M.Sc., Ph.D. (Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology of UAI), Dr. Nunung Nurhasanah, S.T., M.Si (Head of Industrial Engineering Department), and Muchammad Nasucha, S.S., M.Si. (Vice Deputy of the Office of International Affairs of UAI) visited Lembang. The activities involved all the parties to get to know as well as witness one of the stratovolcanoes in Indonesia, Tangkuban Perahu. They also had chances to learn and understand tea cultivation and the types of tea in Lembang which consist of white, green, and black tea. Moreover, most importantly the delegations were introduced about UAI’s research collaboration with Sinergia Foundation about sunflower utilization and cultivation.
“Welcome to Indonesia. I really appreciate this collaboration among DU, Erasmus+, and UAI. Thank you for responding positively to our invitation to attend this event. I hope this meeting will lead us to be fruitful and strengthen our cooperation”. Prof. Dr. Ir Asep Saefuddin, M.Sc. (Rector of UAI) during his opening remarks.
Tuesday (14/11), during the welcoming event, Ms. Leikuma-Rimicane shared to all the participants about Latvia and DU. She explained that Latvia is one of the Baltic States of Northern Europe. It borders Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, and Belarus to the southeast and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Its capital and largest city is Rīga. Latvians belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages. Meanwhile, DU has existed since 1921 and with some evolutions in 2001 they officially set the name to “Daugavpils University until now. DU has two major faculties that are Faculty of Natural Sciences and Healthcare and Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences with three study buildings, two student dormitories, observatory, laboratory complex, sport complex, and research centres. Every year there are at least 5% of International students who study in DU from Azerbaijan, China, Belarus, India, Indonesia, Italy, Lithuania, Lesotho, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Philippines,Poland, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Israel, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Jamaica, and Poland. Since 2022, DU has achieved many scientific achievements 79 projects have been done, 225 publications, and 17 scientific projects.
Hereinafter, from UAI, Mr. Hidayat presented about the potential collaborations that can be done between the Faculty of Science and Technology of UAI and the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Healthcare of DU. The cooperation can be implemented through students Exchange guest Lecturer/joint seminar, joint research/lab sharing. To sum up, Informatics study program: Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality, Big Data & Smart City, and High Performance Computing (HPC); Electrical Engineering: Telecommunication (wireless & optical communication), IoT and Robotics, and open collaboration in developing the green/renewable energy; Biology study program: Ecology and Biological Conservation and Animal Biotechnology; Food Technology study program: Halal Food and Thayyib, Halal Product Development, and Food and Health Biochemistry; Nutrition study program: Nutrition and Halal Food and Nutrition and Public Health; Industrial Engineering study program: Industrial Engineering Consortium and ISIEM 14th. He added that he really welcomed DU to join them in these collaboration projects. (TSH)