Swiss German University gets first graduating class

Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Optimism filled the air, along with bouquets of flowers and camera flashes, at the Swiss German University (SGU) last Saturday.

Members of the university's first graduating class of bachelors seemed to be optimistic that at the least, they would not be joining the country's legions of unemployed.

"I hope to find work at a reputable international company," said Lisa Yogi Saputra, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration, at the campus in the Bumi Serpong Damai housing estate.

She said her thesis was on "an analysis of supply chain management to achieve competitive advantage in business".

Roestiandi Tsamanov, who received a bachelor's degree in mechatronics, said that like Lisa, he felt the internship in Germany, facilitated for all students at the university, would help him in terms of both experience and in establishing work contacts in both Indonesia or in Germany.

"I hope to work at Siemens in Cilegon," he said.

The 20 students who graduated on Saturday with bachelor's degrees were the first graduating class of bachelors at the international university, and all of the students are entitled to double degrees from a university in Germany.

A graduation ceremony for the fourth and fifth batches of the university's master's program also took place on Saturday.

One of the graduates, Husni, said he had had the benefit of a scholarship from SGU. Scholarships are to selected lecturers like himself at the Indonesian Institute of Technology, also in Serpong. After graduation, he said, "I'm going back to teaching, and hopefully I can help improve the curricula."

Rector Peter Pscheid said the importance of setting up the SGU in Indonesia, which received its license in 2000, was mainly in helping improve the condition of the university system.

A survey in 2000 of 77 universities in Asia by the now-defunct Asiaweek magazine ranked University of Indonesia, the country's top university, number 61, below China's Southeast University and followed by Thailand's Chiang Mai University.

SGU cofounder Fritz Kleinsteuber said it was important that English was the medium of instruction at the university, because "English is the language of science, which both Germans and Indonesians must also learn".

Another cofounder, Noke Kiroyan, who is also the president of the Indonesian-Australian Business Council, gave the graduating students some sound advice: "You should set goals for the years ahead. Should you learn a new language, for example Mandarin? Should you improve your IT skills?"

With a hefty tuition fee -- Rp 22 million per academic semester for a bachelor's degree -- students said that given the low living costs, studying at SGU was still cheaper than studying overseas.

The SGU is an associate of the 18-member International Lake of Constance University Consortium, and was set up by the Yayasan Swiss German University-Asia, a cooperation between Germany, Australia, Switzerland and Indonesia.

Currently it has programs in engineering, information technology, business administration (including hotel and tourism management) and life sciences.