USU strengthens position as globally competitive university
Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) has recorded a number of important achievements in its efforts to strengthen its position as a globally competitive university, entering the 401–600 band in the THE Impact Rankings 2026.
The achievement was announced by USU Rector Prof Muryanto Amin at the open session of USU’s 74th Dies Natalis, themed “Listening to Science for Global Impact”, held at the USU Auditorium on Thursday.
In his report, Prof Muryanto said the ranking movement is part of USU’s transformation towards a new phase titled The Era of Ultimate Excellence for the 2026–2031 period.
“This is the meaning of Listening to Science: reading data, learning from experience, and using knowledge to make faster and more precise decisions,” he said.
He stressed that knowledge must not stop in lecture halls, laboratories or scientific publications. Research must be able to answer the problems faced by society and produce tangible benefits.
“Global impact does not mean abandoning the problems around us, but rather starting from the ability to solve problems occurring in society and turning knowledge into benefits and direct impact for the community,” he said.
In addition to institutional reputation, student achievements were also highlighted by Prof Muryanto Amin in the report.
As of August 2026, USU students had recorded 792 achievements included in the student affairs ranking indicators of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology.
The breakdown is 102 achievements at provincial level, 427 at national level and 263 at international level. Of these, 347 were first place, 231 second place and 214 third place.
In the academic field, USU also has 182 study programmes registered in PDDikti as of 11 August 2026. Of these, 50.55 percent hold Unggul (Excellent) or A accreditation status.
This year, 29 USU study programmes have also obtained international accreditation.
The strengthening of human resource quality is also evident from the number of doctoral-qualified lecturers, which now stands at 701, and the number of professors, which increased to 233 in August 2026 from 173 in 2024.
In terms of research, from 2022 to 2025 USU recorded 3,236 research projects with funding support of Rp223.1 billion from various sources including DPRM, DRTPM, BRIN, and the USU Equity programme.
For international collaboration, USU recorded 267 collaborative research projects with total funding of Rp26.6 billion from 2021 to 2026. Meanwhile, reputable international publications indexed by Scopus have reached 14,710 publications.
He noted that a number of research outputs are also being directed towards community needs.
One of these is the development of USU soybean varieties, which have obtained Plant Variety Protection (PVP) rights for three candidate varieties: Athelia USU, Soya USU and G1 USU.
USU is also developing waste processing technology, material innovation, and B-50 fuel testing to support energy resilience.