Sustainable development in essence is the development that means growth, advance, and improvement. To meet the needs without compromising the ability of future generations, there are several things that encompasses three pillars which are economic, social, and cultural sustainability (Indonesia Sustainability, 2022). In response to this University Al-Azhar Indonesia (UA) which is represented by Prof. Ir. Dr. Asep Saefuddin, M.Sc (Rector of UAI) shared his concern with an executive lecture at Asia University Taiwan (AUT) on Tuesday (11/7) at Building A116, Teams. The highlights of the topic involve A first look at sustainable development; the nature of higher education; higher education: chance, challenge, and threat; higher education and sustainable development.
Before the event begins, Prof. Asep together with Mohamad Ghozali Moenawar, Lc., M.M. (Head of Office of International Affairs), and Dr. Shih (the Director of TIUL), and Faradesiva Angger (Officer at TIUL) are welcomed by Prof. Chun-Wei R. Lin, Ph. D. (Dean of College of Management) dan Prof. Yinghuei Chen (Dean of College of Humanities and Social Sciences) at the Room M627. The event was opened by the opening remarks by Prof. Chen and Prof. Asep.
At the moment, Prof. Asep explained that Education is an instrument or activity that focuses or strives to make an individual full of knowledge and skill. Then it leads everyone to become successful and grow into a good accomplisher in managing the tasks and problems (encounter life problems & achieve goals). It is his belief that education paves the way for development of the knowledge and attitudes needed by citizens in every nation to create sustainable societies (Hallinger & Chatpinyakoop, 2019). Higher education institutions (HEIs) are essential actors in the promotion of lifelong learning (LLL) to develop skills and foster knowledge, and the potential to mobilize educational resources and provide learning opportunities for diverse populations (Unesco, 2023).
Moreover, Prof. Asep divided the nature of education into three things. Education is the key to success. It is helping to overcome or deal with a problem and potential, knowledge and skill provides the basis for a successful career, high social status, decent life, and opportunity to achieve ambitions, and it makes someone knowledgeable, skilled, creative, productive, innovative which is the other side of growing and developing. Therefore, it can be said that education is the most powerful tool in the future.
Prof Asep also emphasized that there is a new landscape nowadays as the consequences of technological inventions that come into industry, society, and education as well. This makes the skills that industries look for to fulfil needs and conquer competition today are new and some of them are based on the current technology (digital). Microcredentials as an industrial strategy in facing current situations (e.g., Google Career Certificates for Data analyst, IT Support, UX Designers) forced universities to reorient the educational matters holistically (Satria, 2023).
In the final, Prof Asep said that in terms of Indonesia and Taiwan context, there are several agenda potentials to be done according to each nation which are the characteristics of three pillars in higher education in Indonesia – Education, Research, and Community Service-. Therefore, he hopes that they could be the consideration to AUT while the contents are in line with the current and future circumstances. The strategy that can be followed as the European’s method. One of the examples is key actions for a smart, innovative and sustainable industry according to the European Commission in 2017.
Apart from that, the two universities have agreed to plan in advancing their collaboration in the future. AUT currently has many ongoing programs such as Summer School Program which is attended by Indonesian students, Semiconductor Intensive Class Program which is joined by Indian students, Joint Degree Program which consists of two semesters (1st Intensive Class and 2nd Internship). This may be the model of the future collaboration between AUT and UAI. Afterwards, the visitation ended with a campus tour in AUT and everyone had a chance to visit the AI library and the medical check-up recording machine. (MN/TSH/FA)