Swiss German University gets first graduating class

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.