ITB opens business school

ITB opens business school

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has opened a
business and management school as part of an attempt to become
the country's leading provider of quality education in the field
of technological entrepreneurship.

"Technology, according to our definition, is complete
integration between the sciences, engineering, arts and
economics," ITB rector Kusmayanto Kadiman said here on Wednesday
during the formal launch of the school.

"The new school, offering studies in business, management and
entrepreneurship, will therefore fulfill the economics part of
our technological studies."

The undergraduate and doctorate programs offered by the school
will also complement ITB's Master of Business Administration
(MBA) program, which has been available since 1990.

The ITB, which is regarded as one of the best higher education
institutions in the country, currently has six departments in its
school of pure sciences and 17 in its three engineering schools.
It also has a school of fine art and design.

At the postgraduate level, it has 31 masters degree programs
and three doctorate programs, including an MBA program.

Kusmayanto further explained that the business and management
school would stress hands-on experience for its students.

"Students will be required to do at least six months of actual
business decision-making and managerial work at patron companies
during their studies," he said, adding that 40 percent of the
school's lecturers would also be business practitioners from the
companies.

In addition to six months of actual work at companies, the
school's director, Surna Tjahja Djajadiningrat, said that
students would also be required to start up and manage their own
companies during their senior year.

"Each of their companies will receive start-up capital of
US$5,000 in loans from a bank we have established cooperation
with," he said. "Students will learn the real hardship of being
entrepreneurs, whether it be gaining profits or suffering
losses."

Surna also said that the school would provide a stock market
simulator at its campus in Bandung, which would later be
connected to the actual stock markets in Jakarta and Surabaya, to
give students real-time experience of the markets.

ITB has recently encouraged entrepreneurship among its
students. Besides the MBA program and business and management
studies, the institute has also established a business incubator
center to help start-up companies established by its students and
alumni.