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.