We are much honored on 16 October 2020 to come to an online platform to sign the Memorandum of Understanding between Universitas Negeri Malang and Graduate School of Engineering Science/School of Engineering Science, Osaka University. We are pleased to collaborate with one of the best universities in Japan and the world. We realize that Malaysian and Indonesian universities still need to learn more with top universities like Osaka University. Therefore we would like to thank Professor Hiroshi Umakoshi, who has agreed to bridge this collaboration to bring goodness to us.
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The people of South East-Asia had been Looking East long before Malaysia adopted the Look East Policy. It is in the era of Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister of Malaysia in the early ’80s. The bilateral relations between Malaysia and Japan in the last 30 years can be considered the Look East Policy. The successful policy resulted in over 14,000 Malaysians having higher education and training in Japanese universities and training institutes. Inspired by this policy, UTM is looking into expanding the cooperation in this area.
This MoU is related to the collaboration between the Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, and Ibnu Sina Institute, UTM, that has been started in 2008, 12 years ago. The collaboration between UTM and Osaka University has resulted in many success. In our record, 17 professors from the Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, have visited UTM as a visiting professor. And till now, five academics staff of UTM has received Ph.D. degrees from Osaka University. Today, this is a landmark that the cooperation between UTM and the Graduate School of Engineering Science is expanded in collaboration with Universitas Negeri Malang. This tripartite collaboration, between UTM, Osaka University, and Universitas Negeri Malang can provide a more impact on the progress of higher education and research. Since UTM and Universitas Negeri Malang are the Coordinators for Indonesia-Malaysia Research Consortium, we hope that this collaboration may be extended to a broader spectrum, namely with other universities in Indonesia under the umbrella of Indonesia-Malaysia Research Consortium.
One of the easiest ways to start a tripartite collaboration between UTM, Osaka University, and Universitas Negeri Malang is by joint supervision of Ph.D. students. This semester, one of the academic staff from Universitas Negeri Malang (Mr. Nurul Hidayat) has registered as a Ph.D. student at Laser Center, Ibnu Sina Institute, UTM. Based on this, there is a possibility that this student is also supervised by a professor at the Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University. Of course, with this MoU, there is also an opportunity for the academic staff of Universitas Negeri Malang to continue their Ph.D. at Osaka University.
In the spirit of friendship, this signing ceremony will strengthen our cooperation and strive to promote reciprocal exchanges. Besides the academic and research talks, we also hope to promote social exchange and interaction, building friendships at the staff and student levels via scientific seminar. Such annual interactions foster friendship and create a special bond between us.
Today’s development is part of the globalization efforts of Malaysia’s universities. My wish on this historic occasion is that the partnership between Universitas Negeri Malang, UTM and Osaka University will thrive and develop into an enduring strategic collaboration, encompassing education, research and entrepreneurship.
We look forward to a successful and mutually rewarding partnership with Osaka University.