Mendiktisaintek: Universities must support priority programmes

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Mendiktisaintek), Brian Yuliarto, conveyed a message from President Prabowo Subianto urging universities to align with and support national priority work programmes. He stated that the President hopes universities can shape human resources that match domestic needs. Based on this directive, his office is striving to encourage research at the higher education level to produce innovations that address domestic challenges. This relevance is very important, he added, as it will help Indonesia’s self-reliance and resilience, especially in the current global crisis conditions. “With various upheavals or problems in the global situation, dependence on other countries has proven not to be beneficial for our nation. We must have self-reliance. Because when there are disruptions, we see the case of the Strait of Hormuz, prices rise, our national resilience is not very strong,” Brian said. Therefore, his office is currently evaluating a series of study programmes in state universities to assess and map updates in science and technology that can be developed through those programmes. “So, yesterday I already conveyed that instead of closing study programmes, we are developing them, meaning we conduct evaluations, we carry out updates, so that the substance of those programmes continues to follow developments in science and technology. It keeps up with the latest findings,” he said.