To strengthen its global recognition, Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) keeps undergoing various partnerships and collaborations with international partners. The latest collaboration was established with Management & Science University (MSU) Malaysia.
The collaboration was marked by a visit by the President of MSU, Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Wira Dr Mohd Shukri Ab Yajid to UNAIR, discussing the plan for a Double Degree program in the medical field. Being held in Balairua Hall of MERR (C) Campus on Thursday, March 31, 2022, the delegates from MSU Malaysia were welcomed by UNAIR Rector, Prof Moh Nasih SE MT Ak, and UNAIR leadership.
In his welcoming speech, Prof Nasih stated that MSU and UNAIR have had a long-standing and potential partnership. UNAIR and MSU are often involved in academic collaboration.
“It’s a great honor for us all to receive MSU visitation, after quite a long covid, we can finally meet again,” expressed Prof Nasih.
In that meeting, UNAIR – MSU agreed to collaborate on improving university ranking, especially in the Scopus journal index. As one of the best universities in Indonesia and a World Class University (WCU), UNAIR has intensively collaborated with various parties.
Furthermore, Prof Tan Shukri added that their students already do student mobility with UNAIR. According to him, things given to their students have been excellent. He also added about maximizing collaborative mechanism during post-pandemic of Covid-19.
“In the future, we hope to increase collaboration with double degree programs because I think the activity indicates a comprehensive cooperation between us,” mentioned Prof Tan Shukri,
Regarding the double degree collaboration, Prof Tan Shukri hoped that a detailed discussion could be carried out during Shawwal month. He also said that UNAIR leadership would be invited to Malaysia and create a team to discuss this matter.
In this regard, Prof Nasih said that the Faculty of Medicine (FK) UNAIR are already doing double degree cooperation with the University of Melbourne, Australia. With a study scheme of two years in UNAIR and two and a half years in Melbourne, he hoped that this model could become an example and primary reference for collaboration with other campuses.
In the end, UNAIR and MSU agreed to establish a team that could follow up on this double degree partnership, especially in the medical field. Besides the double degree, cooperation must also be developed, such as research, publication, innovation, and even mandatory research.
“We hope there will be more cooperation. The most important thing from all of these, of course, is the action,” concluded Prof Nasih. (*)